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William WordsworthA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Wordsworth depended on memory of past events and experiences to nourish his life as an adult and also to fuel his poetry. Many of these memories were of his childhood and adolescence, when he reveled in exploring England’s Lake District.
In the poem, memory first surfaces in Line 3, “So it was when my life began.” Here, Wordsworth refers to the explosion of joy he felt when he caught sight of a rainbow as a boy. Wordsworth loves that this experience has become much more than a memory. Because he continues to have the same jolt of awe at the sight of rainbows as an adult, he cherishes the connection with his childhood innocence, youthful insight, and uncomplicated awe at the beauties of nature. He values the continuity of the past with the present—so much so that the imagined loss of that continuity of memory prompts him to demand death (“Or let me die!” [Line 6]).
The feeling that the past was somehow always better can be felt in much of Wordsworth’s poetry, even though he also tries hard to convince himself that what he has gained is at least equal to what he has lost. In this poem, memory of the past is reassuring because his present experience as an adult (in this instance, of the rainbow) is just as enriching and joyful as it was when he was much younger.
By William Wordsworth
A Complaint
A Complaint
William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
Daffodils
Daffodils
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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth
Tintern Abbey
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...
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London, 1802
London, 1802
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Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
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Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
William Wordsworth
She Was a Phantom of Delight
She Was a Phantom of Delight
William Wordsworth
The Prelude
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth
The World Is Too Much with Us
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth
To the Skylark
To the Skylark
William Wordsworth
We Are Seven
We Are Seven
William Wordsworth