“Childhood” expressed in the ode ‘Intimation of Immortality’

William Wordsworth is truly a great lover of nature in all its forms. It has remained the main theme of him and made him able to explain the inner feelings of him. He has composed several poems about childhood, but this poem is known as one of his best poems. It was completed in 1804 and published in poems, in two volumes in 1807. It consists of eleven stanzas which are divided into three parts. The first part of him is connected with childhood and the second part with his adulthood, where he spends more time following worldly thoughts. The third part of it describes a positive response to the problem of nature loss.

In this poem, William Wordsworth talks about his childhood. He describes it as a double vision of childhood. According to him, one is that of childhood and the other is the childhood that we carry inside as a memory. Alec King describes this double vision as visible childhood and invisible childhood. The first four stanzas of it describe childhood and its connection with nature. At this age, the child has the ability to see the divine glory of nature. He calls the boy a great philosopher due to the preexisting memory of him. According to Alec King, the soul enters human life at our birth as an episode of his immortal life. He is banished for a time from his divine home, but in his early years he does not forget his home and the divine light that is his source or companion. That is why he is attached to nature. All things like meadows, streams, earth, rainbows, flowers, sky, stars, and sunshine all seem beautiful and attractive to him. He remains in his company and enjoys the divine glory. The poet accepts that all natural objects when he was a child, but now they seem different to him. Alec King calls it a visible childhood that is attached to nature. Simultaneously, the poet calls it the first vision of childhood.

The other is the invisible childhood. William Wordsworth calls it the other view of childhood. Here the child becomes the father of the man. The main reason for it is that the child remains in a state of innocence and enjoys heavenly or divine vision. His journey to the man state vanishes the first vision. He is a grown man, and his inclination is too much with worldly things. In it, visible childhood is deaf and dumb. When he feels that nature seems dull, he gets discouraged. He hears the song of the birds in spring; he looks at the little lambs jumping and jumping and tasting the winds, but he does not find the joy of childhood. He finds that the whole land is very happy, and all around him there is a joyous festival. His heart also wants to join in to play and laugh among the flowers, but all things seem different to him because he has lost his visible childhood.

In his opinion, human life is nothing more than a dream and oblivion. Before entering the earth, his life was purer and more glorious because heaven or divine vision is found in childhood. During childhood, his memory and the magic of that place were alive, but as this childhood transferred into adulthood, all magic died. He calls it the conjuration of worldly pleasures that helps to forget the glories. It is the attraction of such a conspiracy that disturbs the poet. William Wordsworth looks at a six-year-old boy and imagines his life heading toward adulthood. He is of the opinion that adult life consists of worldly pleasures, festivals, weddings, sorrows and funerals. He speaks to the boy as a mighty prophet and informs him of the lost truth. He too persecutes him lest he rush into an adult life of worldly customs and troubles.

Now, the poet returns to the philosophical point. He recognizes that he possesses very different faculties. In his faculty, visible childhood is alive because memories of him are enriched with the joy of nature. It is always with him and emits the approach to the lost world of nature, innocence and exploration. Such a vision rebounds him by offering the joy of nature, and so he urges the birds to sing, and then all creatures to partake of the joy of May morning. He confesses that the materialistic world has affected some of the glory of nature and experience, but has conferred a mature consciousness or philosophical mind. Such a consciousness or philosophical mind makes the child the father of man.

It means that dual vision has allowed you to love nature and natural beauty. Now He can discover unique thoughts of natural things that will remain alive or with him until death. It is the memory of him or awareness of him that connects him with childhood and nature. In fact, he is right because his life and his work are an outstanding example of it.

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