Immortality: Seen Through the Eyes of a Child

William Wordsworth gave his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood" a melancholy mood. In this poem, Wordsworth compares nature as he saw it as a child to nature as he sees it today. Though he says that nature has remained as it was, he cannot see it the same way. Wordsworth argues in this poem that as one grows older and his perceptions of things change, he loses the ability to see things as he once did, but he still has his memories to draw upon.

The nature that Wordsworth knew as is the same nature which he knows now. The rainbow and the rose and the moon are all still there. Yet "The things which I have seen I now can see no more." Wordsworth can't see things quite the same as he once did; as a child, everything was a source of wonder, "Apparelled in celestial light." But now something seems missing to him. Wordsworth longs to be able to see things as he once did. But he acknowledges that he will never again be able to see things in the same way as a child.

However, by the end of the poem, Wordsworth comes to terms with this. He accepts that he can no longer see things as a child does. But he realizes that all hope is not lost. He still has his memories, and he has also gained wisdom in his years. He does not see things the same, but he appreciates them no less. Wordsworth has lost the ability to perceive things as a child, but he now has a different lens to view things through, the lense of wisdom and experience.


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