We Are Seven
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1798
In "We Are Seven," an eight-year-old girl insists that she has seven siblings, although two of them are deceased and buried nearby. The poem's speaker, perplexed by her steadfast belief that the dead siblings remain part of the family, engages her in a gentle but insistent debate, ultimately highlighting the differences between adult logic and the child's emotional and spiritual connection to her siblings.
Reviews for Wordsworth's We Are Seven generally praise its exploration of a child's perception of death, highlighting its emotional depth and simplicity. Some critics find the poem's repetition tedious and the adult narrator's disbelief at the child's perspective frustrating. Nonetheless, it remains celebrated for its poignant portrayal of innocence and mortality.
A reader who would enjoy William Wordsworth's "We Are Seven" appreciates Romantic poetry and themes of innocence and nature's beauty. Enthusiasts of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner will find joy in Wordsworth's exploration of childhood and the sublime.
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