My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold Summary

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold- William Wordsworth

Summary

This poem is composed by William Wordsworth. In this poem, the poet has expressed his feeling about natural beauty of rainbow and recollected an experience of his childhood days. According to this poem, the poet says that his heart begins to beat when he sees a rainbow in the sky. He compares his life with rainbow of the sky. He is standing on the earth as the rainbow in the sky. The poet says that he was born with rainbow because when he was born, it was there and it still remains there. He believes that the rainbow will remain there throughout his life. The poet presents the continuity of life and nature from past to future. In this poem, the rainbow gives the continuation of nature and human life. He really expresses that present is the result of the past and future is the outcome of present. Wordsworth is the worshiper of nature. According to him nature is both God and religion. The paradoxical line," the child is the father of the Man", has made the poem interesting. It is true because this can have different meanings. One meaning is that the things we do as children, and the things we feel as children, affect and control the way we feel when we are adults. It means that child is the beginning of man. The man is greatly affected by his childhood. As morning shows the day like the child is the father of the man. Therefore, the poet wishes that his days would be bounded by natural piety. He says that natural beauty is unforgettable. He praises the nature. The poet wants to escape from present life and wants to enjoy from his childhood days. He spends his life in nature. It means that the system of life should be bound in the circle of nature. Life is moral nature is immortal. Death is certain but nature is not faced with death. 

Summary

“My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold”is a poem written by a famous nature poet William Wordsworth. In this poem, the poet recollects/remembers an experience of his childhood days and gives his emotion and feelings a meaning. The poet also expresses his love towards nature. He feels great joy when he sees a rainbow in the sky. He used to enjoy a lot when he saw the rainbow in the sky in his childhood. He hopes he will still get pleasure at seeing the rainbow when he becomes old and if such feeling stops in the future he wishes to die.

According to the poet, child is the father of man because childhood is the beginning of the manhood. In other words, the qualities of the grown up men are all derived from childhood. At last, the poet wishes that his remaining days would be bound by his love to nature.

A paradox is a statement containing opposite ideas that make it unlikely although it may be true. The above statement is paradoxical in the sense that it contains opposite ideas for normal people. The child cannot be the father; he is the man who can be the father. But, the poet through his statement “The Child is the Father of the Man”,wants to say that childhood is the beginning of manhood. The thing we do and feel as children affect the way we feel when we are adults. The poet also wants to say that the present is the result of past.