Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Wordsworth was able to portray the realistic battle between an adult and child's understanding of death in We Are Seven. The repetition of the title throughout the poem was particularly "magical" in my eyes. The simple act of repetition is not magical though, it is the journey that takes the little girl into the final declaration, "we are seven!" that provides new dimension to the poem. When the girl first mentions how many siblings she has, she simply states, "seven in all." From there, she progresses her wording by stating, "seven are we." Next, she says, "we are seven," and finally ends by shouting, "we are seven!" This progression is effective because Wordsworth takes time to develop the child's voice. It is realistic that she would not start out the confrontation by shouting we are seven at this man. As time goes on, she changes her wording and becomes more forceful in her statements because she is frustrated with the man. The slight word and punctuation change highlights the deep emotion the child feels as the argument goes on. This emotion is mirrored in the readers who are innately on the side of the innocent child.
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Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteI also liked the progression of the stubbornness of the little maid. I believe Wordsworth used this character to juxtapose preconceptions that adults are always wiser. In the first two stanzas, Wordsworth frames the character of the girl. I find the introducing paragraphs to be vital to the readers to understand the magic of her dialogue. First, he describes her to be "Simple" -- implying that any child has this innate ability to see her perceptive. The last line in the first stanza poses the question "What should it know of death," then consequently answers the question by the end of the poem. She seems to have a hopeful and magical understanding of death, which does not mean it is wrong because no one knows for sure what happens after death. The second stanza portrays her as conventional cottage girl with curly hair.
Although, I do not believe that the readers are "innately" on the side of the girl at first. I feel as though only after she has explain herself do the readers consider what the child is valid.