Wordsworth We Are Seven

Wordsworth "We Are Seven"

Since time immemorial humanity has always been fascinated with the specter of death. In We Are Seven, William Wordsworth addresses the meaning of death through a poetic dialogue he has with an eight-year-old child. Through this dialogue, Wordsworth attempts to show that the dead are connected to the living when human consciousness is pure and innocent of the corruption of adult conditioning and experience.

For Wordsworth's 'simple child,' her two dead siblings occupy as much of a place in her memory as the siblings who are alive but away from home: "...two of us at Conway dwell, / And two are gone to sea. / Two of us in the churchyard lie..." (We Are Seven, 19-21). In many ways, this is perhaps the most significant of lines in the poem for it clearly shows that in the little girl's mind there is absolutely no difference between the physical absence of the siblings who are away from home and the physical absence of the dead siblings.

For the little girl, it is not just a question of the physical presence or absence of her siblings. By her descriptions, it is pretty evident that the connection she sees is a live one: "And there upon the ground I sit, / And sing a song to them." (43-44)

Contrast this with the adult insistence on tangible proof of life: "You run about, my little Maid, / Your limbs they are alive; / If two are in the churchyard laid, / Then ye are only five?" (33-36) The adult speaker in We Are Seven is simply unable to comprehend the child's insistence that she is one of seven children in spite of the child's descriptions of her almost daily interactions with her dead brother and sister: "And often after sunset, Sir, / When it is light and fair, / I take my little porringer, / And eat my supper there." (45-48) Even after listening to the child's explanations, the conditioned adult mind persists in trying to correct the child: "But they are dead; those two are dead! / Their spirits are in heaven!" (65-66)