William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth is a Romantic poet who uses children in his poetry as either a subject or an image in order to show the journey of his ego. One poem which embraces the voice of the child through the grown up narrator is �We Are Seven.� Wordsworth uses the voice of the little girl and the man to show the contrast ways of thinking. Through their conversation Wordsworth is able to bring up subjects of death, life, and at the same time incorporates nature. This poem display imagination, which is yet another essential element of the Romantic tradition. Wordsworth gives the girl a creative imagination and at through her wild ideas the narrator of the poem reaches a sense of understanding, therefore experiencing the heroic journey. Even though this poem does use a child as a subject, it follows every aspect embraced by the Romantic poets.

Wordsworth has another poem, �The Thorn,� where throughout he uses the subject of a woman and her infant. The first stanza of this poem uses the word �child.� Here the thorn is compared to a child. The thorn becomes the object that the narrator uses to reflect on a tragic story of a woman and her baby. The poem ends with the death of the infant. It follows the Romantic tradition because it is a reflection of the author�s thought and vision and it describes nature throughout. Wordsworth also uses the image of a hermit, which is what the lady had become by the time her child was born. As the poem describes nature and its beauty, the mad woman and the death of her infant create a contrast to the natural surrounding. Wordsworth uses the contraries, emotions and nature, to tell the journey of developing his own reason through reflections on the woman and her infant.