While researching ballads written by William Wordsworth, I found many poems that relate to nature and the Romantic movement such as “Lines Written in Early Spring”, “The Tables Turned”, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, “Strange fits of passion have I known”, “She dwelt among the untrodden ways”, “Michael”, and last but certainly not least “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. These poems set the platform for the Romantic era by emphasizing feeling, instinct, and pleasure above formality and mannerism (SparkNotes 2002). However, while these poems are outstanding examples of nature and the Romantic movement, “We Are Seven” was a total game-changer. Although “We Are Seven” is a short poem, Wordsworth’s depiction of nature in relations to the Romantic movement is unmatched and beautifully orchestrated.
Wordsworth is one of the most influential poets of Nature. According to him, “Nature is the best teacher for mankind.” Throughout Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the greatest influence on the human mind. All manifestations of the natural world—from the highest mountain to the simplest flower—elicit noble, elevated thoughts and passionate emotions in the people who observe these manifestations (2002). Wordsworth consistently emphasized the importance of nature to an individual’s intellectual and spiritual development. His mentality that a love of nature can lead to a love of humankind further accentuates his representation of nature.
Wordsworth was the founding father of the Romantic movement. His works set out a new theory of poetry, which emphasized clear, direct language that the common man and woman could enjoy (Shmoop Editorial Team 2008). Wordsworth wanted to penetrate right into our hearts and feelings; he wanted poems to be pleasurable; he wanted to reach what he called “the naked and native dignity of man” (2008). Furthermore, Wordsworth’s ideologies and his bold expressions to collaborate his artistic thoughts with human emotions solidifies his place in history as one of the founders of the Romantic movement.
So why “We Are Seven” over Wordsworth’s other influential ballads? Because “We Are Seven” answers all of the big questions involving romanticism, especially the big questions about the meaning of life and death. This poem tells the story of a man talking to a young girl about her family. Though two of her siblings are deceased, and only four are alive, she insists (over the protests of the man) that she and her brothers and sisters “are seven” in total. The man, however, thinks that they are only five. He thinks that the deceased just don’t count. Through this dialogue, we come to understand that the girl and the man think about death differently. And as we read, we begin to wonder if, in fact, the child is way smarter than the old dude conversing with her. Children just might understand the meaning of death way better than grown-ups do (2008).
“We Are Seven” takes place in the British countryside, someplace where there are rolling hills and forests. More specifically, the poem takes place close to the child’s home, which is a cottage only “twelve steps” from the church-yard where her dead brother and sister are buried. Their graves are so close to her home that the girl can spend part of every day relaxing with her dead siblings (2008). The description in the poem that the young girl is full of life, beauty, and hope, makes it clear that she is not overwhelmed by sadness. In fact, she was just as confident that she would see Jane and John as she was confident she would see her other siblings who were away. Her ability to endure a tragedy like this without becoming resentful or depressed reveals a wisdom and understanding beyond her years.
While death is promised in all of our lives, how we think about death is not; there are probably as many ways to think about death as there are ways to die. “We Are Seven” introduces different perspectives on mortality, and asks all kinds of emotional questions. The cool thing about the poem is that it focuses not so much on what happens to us when we die, but on how death affects those who are still living (2008).