The poet says that his heart leaps up when he sees a rainbow
in the sky. It was the beginning of his life, and now he’s well grown up. He
knows that he will grow old and finally die, too. As the child (past) is father
(future) of the man (present), the poet wishes his days to be bound to each
period (past, present and future) by natural holiness, that is, natural
blessing of divinely power.
The distinction of Wordsworth lies in the fact that to him
Nature was not mere physical loneliness, but a revelation of God. He worshiped
nature. He saw in all natural objects the indwelling spirit of Supreme Being.
To him he varied forms and phenomena were nothing but manifestation of the
divine. He realized that to love nature is to Man who is part and
parcel of the nature. Nature is the great teacher and healer. In the first two
line of the poem, the poet feels his heart leaps up at the sight of a rainbow
in the sky. The nature has produced a good effect on the poetic mind of
Wordsworth. The poet has been turned to the skepticism of life because of the
spectrum of the rainbow.
In the third, fourth and fifth lines, he has found natural
continuation of life – child, man and old man. In the fifth line, there is speculation
(guess) of the break in the continuation. Death is inevitable to end the
beautiful period of life.
The seventh line is basically the main theme of the poem.
The widely accepted proverb, “The Child is the Father of Man” has to tell us a
lot. It says that the present is the outcome of the past. So naturally the
future will be the outcome of the past. The last two lines conclude the
argument. The poet, therefore, concludes wishing that his days should be bound
to each period of life by natural way with divinely pleasure.
The Poem ‘My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold’ is
written by William Wordsworth. He is one of the poets who started romanticism
in English literature. He expressed his love towards nature in his literary
works. According to him “Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:
it takes it origin from emotions recollected in tranquility.” In this poem he
recollects an experience of his childhood days and gives his emotions and
feelings a meaning.
When the poet sees the rainbow in the sky, his heart
becomes extremely happy. The situation was same when he was a child. He used to
become happy when he saw rainbow in the sky in his child hood. The condition is
still same in the present. Now the poet is an adult and his heart still becomes
happy when he sees rainbow. He wants his heart to be happy in future also in
the same way when he will see the rainbow. And he wishes to die if the
happiness in his heart for the rainbow doesn’t remain same when he will become
old in future. He thinks that the child is father of the man because a child
has all the characteristics that grow along with him and become the
characteristics of the man. In the same way a growing man develops the
characteristics he showed as a child. So, the poet wishes to tie each of his
coming days with the worship and love of nature as childhood.
