XI - My heart Leaps up When I Behold

Unit - 2

My Heart Leaps up When I Behold - Analysis

- William Wordsworth

The poem "My Heart Leaps up When I Behold" is composed by the famous English romantic poet William Wordsworth. In the poem, the poet describes the beauty of nature and shows his love and devotion towards nature. The poet recollects an experience of his childhood days and gives meaning to his emotions and feelings. Through his poem, the poet also shows the thread of human life i.e. progress or stages of our life.

Wordsworth was a lover of nature. He worshiped the things of nature as god. He enjoyed the beauty of nature every time. In the poem, he says that when he sees the rainbow in the sky, he becomes very happy. Rainbow is the example of the beautiful creation of the nature. It looks really beautiful in the combination of seven colors. The poet further says that he used to happy when he saw the rainbow in the sky during his childhood days. The feeling of happiness for the rainbow is same in him as a young man at present. And he hopes to have the same types of feeling for the rainbow in future as well. He says that if he can't continue to have such feelings for nature in his future life, he feels it will be better for him to die.

Finally, the poet expresses his wish for the future. He wishes to continue his love for the nature. In a sense, he wants to spend his future days worshiping the natural things. It is written in nine lies in which he has been able to show his love and devotion for nature and its beauty.

The paradox in "The child is father of the man."

                       In the poem, the poet says 'The child is father of the man.' This proverb seems to be paradoxical as we consider the man to be father of man. But the poet wants to say that childhood is the base of every man's life because from childhood, manhood begins. Man enters the living world and starts to know life from his childhood. It determines the coming stages of our life. It is often said, morning shows the day, and in this context, it is obvious that the person shows same characters in his manhood which he gained or developed in childhood. In another words, the poet means to say that present is the outcome of the past so the future will be the outcome of the present. It indicates, the beginning of everything is very important. Here, the word father means the one from whom something begins. So it means, childhood is the foundation of manhood. A man goes towards his destiny which he determined himself in childhood. This indirectly points to the fact that man is himself controlled through his own childhood. Thus, childhood is the foundation of manhood and a child has roles as of father to play at present to mould himself in future as a man.