The Concept of Childhood in the Poetry of William Wordsworth

Session III, Virtual Room 2: Time Traveling

In the poetry of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, the imagery of childhood emerges as an antidote to the encroaching industrial world on what he viewed as the natural virtues of humanity in a more pastoral setting. This paper will examine how Wordsworth places the child at the center of his vision for a simple and good life within the restorative powers of nature. The poet credits his own creative capabilities to an early appreciation of nature and his ability, in adulthood, to contemplate the power of a child-like wonder to unify the natural and human worlds. The child possesses an inherent distance from the complexities of the industrial city which Wordsworth, himself, seeks in nature. Whether a child is in a crowded room or on a woodland path, he/she remains in the distinct, uncomplicated, unsophisticated world of childhood. In this way, as Wordsworth writes in "My Heart Leaps Up" that the child is "father of the man".