Discuss Wordsworth’s attitude towards childhood as revealed in the “Immortality Ode.”

Answer

Discuss Wordsworth’s attitude towards childhood as revealed in the “Immortality Ode.”

The acclaimed poem of the 19th century is “Ode on Intimation of Immortality” (1807) by William Wordsworth (1770-1850). The poem deals with the memory of losses and gains and provides a very high concept of childhood. Wordsworth’s conception of childhood is evident in his most popular line,

Child is the father of man.

As a great mystic and philosopher, Wordsworth has glorified childhood.

Wordsworth’s Glorification of Childhood in Immortality Ode

Heavenly Pleasures: At the very outset of the poem, Wordsworth declares that all human beings enjoy heavenly pleasures in childhood as the poet enjoyed in his childhood. In childhood, all objects of nature, such as meadows, groves, streams, rainbows, roses, and moonlit, seem covered with divine beauty and pleasures. Still, with time, such beauty and pleasures disappear, though the objects of nature remain unchanged.

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Thus, Wordsworth consults the philosophic idea that Heaven stays in childhood and adolescence but not manhood.

Pre-Existence of the Human Soul in the Light of Childhood: The poem’s controversial metaphysical concept is the human soul’s pre-existence. Since Wordsworth philosophically observes that childhood is the stage of heavenly joy, the residence of the first stage of the human soul is Eden. Side by side, the poet also asserts that the glory of paradise becomes fainter and fainter in the course of life.

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison house begin to close

Upon the growing Boy,

Therefore, childhood is not only a time of divine pleasures but a stage that bears messages of the pre-existence of the human soul.

Full of Care and Hope: Parent’s affectionate love and care exist in childhood. Every morning is packed with new hopes and business contrary to maturity. Besides, liberty resides in full swing in a child. In such a way, the pigmy actor enters into a new stage of life.

Ad with new joy and pride

The little Actor cons another part;

The Psychology of the Child: Wordsworth vividly describes child psychology in this poem. The child who has been called an imitator and actor. He performs all parts and copies every action and gesture that he sees.

Shaped by himself with newly-learned art

A wedding or a festival,

A mourning or a funeral;

That is why a child is glorified, as learning is the secret source of success and happiness in this materialistic world.

The Prestige of the Child: The bombastic prestige of a child has been granted with a fantastic duality of childhood. There are visible and invisible childhoods in the ode. The visible childhood is open for the readers in the factual language of stanza seven. On the other hand, the invisible childhood is present in stanza eight, where metaphor and myth are used to recognize the child as “best philosopher, seer blest,” and “eye among the blind.” The invisible childhood runs throughout maturity and, of course, till infirmity.

The Ideal Spirit of a Child: The child is spiritually greater than the adult man because the worldly pleasures of pelf and power are out and out absent in childhood. In this way, Wordsworth presents an idealized picture of a child calling him “Mighty Prophet.” It is the romantic trait to idealize a child’s innocence and pure joy.

In termination, it is said that the idealization of child and childhood is philosophic and spiritual to a great extent. Moreover, Wordsworth’s treatment of childhood has been wrapped with the mystic vision of life.