What is the theme of Wordsworth's poem "My Heart Leaps Up"?
The idea of Wordsworth's, "My Heart Leaps Up," is that life isn't worth living if one does not have an intimate relationship with nature.
The speaker's heart metaphorically leaps up when it sees a rainbow in the speaker's present, as it did when he was a child, and as it will in the future when he will be old--if it doesn't when he is old, he might as well die.
And poetry is not that subjective. An intelligent interpretation of a poem must stem from evidence within the poem. There's nothing in this poem about paintings or loved ones or about growing old well. The poem's about having an intimate relationship with nature every day of one's life, whether one is a child or a man.
From ny point of view (as poetry is so subjective) the line in the poem "My Heart...
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Leaps Up" byWilliam Wordsworth is the line "The Child is Father of the Man." The poet is saying that childhood is the most impressive time of a person's life - whatever happens then influences the person for the rest of their life. Luckily for William Wordsworth, he recognises his fortune in being born in such a joyfully scenic landscape and the delight this gives will last right throughout his life - and maybe beyond. It will be expressed over and over again in his poetry to be shared with others - it has formed his character and runs through him. Sadly, some people are not so lucky and their formative childhood influences are negative.
To me, there are a couple of important themes in this poem.
First, there is the theme of the love of nature. The speaker's heart leaps up not when he sees a painting, or someone he loves, but rather when he sees something beautiful from nature -- a rainbow.
Second, there is the idea of hoping to age well. The speaker is hoping that his way of thinking, his emotions, will not change as he grows older. He hopes that he will still feel the same way he felt as a younger person.
What is the rhythm and rhyme of William Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up"?
The poem's predominant rhythm is iambic tetrameter. This means that most lines have four feet, each foot consisting of one unstressed (or unaccented) syllable followed by one stressed (or accented) syllable. Of course, there are a couple of lines that are exceptions to this. I have placed accented syllables in bold in the poem below:
My heart | leaps up | when I | be hold(iambic tetrameter)
A rain | bow in | the sky(iambic trimeter)
So was | it when | my life | be gan(iambic tetrameter)
So is | it now | I am | a man(iambic tetrameter)
So be | it when | I shall | grow old(iambic tetrameter)
Or let | me die(iambic dimeter, or one iamb and one spondee)
The Child | is fa | ther of | the Man(iambic tetrameter)
And I | could wish | my days | to be(iambic tetrameter)
Bound each | to each | by nat' | ral pi | e ty(iambic pentameter)
Lines 2, 6, and 9 are irregular and do not follow the regular iambic tetrameter of the rest of the poem. Line 2 is in iambic trimeter (which means there are three feet, not four). Line 6 only has two feet, and this is called dimeter: the first foot is an iamb and the second is a spondee (where both syllables are accented or stressed). The final line is the toughest, I think, to scan. ("Scanning" is the process of marking the stressed syllables in a line of verse.) When we say the word "natural," we often make it two syllables (as in "natch-rull") instead of three syllables (as in "natch-a-rull"); therefore, if we split it only into two syllables rather than three, the line scans neatly as iambic pentameter (which has five feet instead of four). However, because six of the nine lines employ regular iambic tetrameter, we can name this as the poem's rhythm.
The rhyme scheme is abccabcdd. This means that lines 1 and 5 rhyme (a), lines 2 and 6 rhyme (b), lines 3, 4, and 7 rhyme (c), and lines 8 and 9 rhyme (d).
Can you paraphrase the poem "My Heart Leaps Up" by Wordsworth?
MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The child is father of the man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety
The speaker says that their heart "leaps up" for joy, when he sees (beholds) a rainbow in the sky. Rainbows were in the sky when he was born, now that he is a man, and he hopes - if not, he'd rather die! - that they'll be there as he grows old.
The child is like the man's father, he says, because - if you look at it chronologically - the child grows into the father, and so is in a strange way "older", belonging to the past. And, as a child is "bound" (tied) to the man he becomes, Wordsworth's speaker hopes that each day of his life will be bound to the next with "natural piety" (piousness - respectfulness - for nature [or just, "that comes naturally"]).
Hope this helps!
The poem “My Heart Leaps Up” is about a rainbow, but it is also about childhood, reminding us to enjoy simple pleasures. We all remember the joy we had seeing rainbows when we were young. As we grow older, we need to find ways to recapture that magic.
The speaker still enjoys rainbows, and they make his heart leap.
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die! (lines 5-6)
He doesn’t want to every forget to enjoy things as he did when he was a child. You have to stop and take in life’s simple pleasures.
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety. (lines 7-9)
The speaker wants to remind us that we are still the children we were when we are adults, and we are still bound to each other and to our childhood selves.