In "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold ," also known as "The Rainbow," the speaker begins my stating that he feels elated or joyful (his "heart leaps up") when he sees a rainbow. He goes on to say that he has felt this way all his life when...
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glimpsing a rainbow: when he was very young, and also now that he is a man. He wishes to feel the same emotion of joy or awe when he gets old as well. In fact, he says he'd rather die than lose that feeling of joy. Then he states that
The Child is father of the Man
and wishes, in the last line of the poem, that all his days could be lived in "natural piety."
"Natural piety" is crucial to Wordsworth's Romantic understanding of nature. It is the feeling of elation the speaker experiences when he sees the beauty of the rainbow. It is "natural" because the sense of reverence the speaker feels comes from seeing nature. It is "piety" because it is a spiritual or worshipful feeling. Wordsworth saw nature as infused with the divine spirit of God. The peace, joy, and wonder that nature brings us comes because nature is God's creation.
"The Child is the Father of the Man" is part of this worldview. Because nature is infused with the divine soul, when a baby is born, they carry with them the spirit of God. This "natural piety" is strongest when they are a child and can be lost as they age. Wordsworth's speaker is hoping fervently that he will not lose this natural piety or sense of the divine presence in the natural world, no matter how old he gets.