How is the theme of childhood presented Essay

The romanticist era ushered in a whole new way in which kidren were perceived. Romantics did non remember in the Seen but not heard attitude towards infantren. The Romantics often busied themselves trying to understand what made a man, what shaped a persons constitution to create the adult. Three metrical compositions in The Lyrical Ballads, all by Wordsworth, deal exclusively with the theme of childhood. They are We are Seven, Anecdote for Fathers and The Idiot Boy. A famous quote by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rosseau states that Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.By this he meant that we are all born without whatever laws or morality and that these are ideals we gain only as we age and get exposed to them by society. This sentiment is reflected in the aforementioned poems, as this whimsey is one of the debates children were so celebrated by the Romantic movement, they were untainted by the societal rules forced upon them, and so were a part of nature in a way an adult could not be. In We are Seven, Wordsworth relates a conversation between the poems narrator and a unripened young lady.The young girl claims to have sixth brothers and sisters, however she says that two of them are dead. Despite the narrators attempts to convince her that makes only four brothers and sisters, five overall, he eventually concedes that is Throwing lecture away as the girl is not able to truly comprehend the realities of death. In this poem Wordsworth juxtaposes the cynicism of the narrators view of death with the innocence of the young girls view. The narrators view is that although she did have six brothers and sisters, she now only has four.The girls brother and sister are no longer alive and thus cannot be considered human, and equally can no longer be the girls brother and sister in all real sense, so he only recognises her as having four siblings. The girl however does not see death in that manner. Although she is aware that they are dead, she is not able to properly understand what this means. As the author says What should it know of death? To her, even though they are dead, they are still her brother and sister, just as much as her others and so she sees herself as one of seven children.In the poem Wordsworth gives a vivid description of the girl, referring to her as rustic and having a forest air, which overtly links her to nature. The situation that the narrator says that her beauty makes me glad shows that Wordsworth is indirectly calling the girl, her innocence and nature, which the girl is close to, a wonderful affair which should be celebrated. Both The Idiot Boy and Anecdote for Fathers deal with the imagination. In Anecdote for Fathers the narrator asks his son whether he prefers their home at Kilve or Liswyn Farm.The child send awayly has never mulld this, however as his buzz off originally praises Kilve more than Liswyn Farm, he says that he prefers Kilve, as he believes that is what his father wants to hear. His father however questions his answer, which the child is not prepared for. Looking around in panic he sees a weather vane and responds with At Klive there was no weather-cock, and thats the reason why. The narrator is ecstatic with his sons answer, as he sees his sons ability to imagine an innocent answer so easily. The father wishes that he could Teach the hundredth part of what from thee I learnThe tone of excitement in the fathers response seems to stem from Wordsworth lamenting the fact that although he is able to understand how children are able to use their imagination in such ways, he is unable to mimic them, as he has already succumbed to the social ideals. In The Idiot Boy Wordsworth the effect of society on an adult by comparing the imagination of a child and his mother. In this poem a woman, Betty, is caring for her sick friend, Susan. Although Susan requires urgent medical care, Betty cannot leave her alone in her state, so she sends Johnny, the Idiot Boy, her intel lectually handicapped son.She gives him very clear instructions that he is to go straight to the doctor and straight back and not stop. Hours later he has not returned and Betty begins to worry about sad mischances, not a few. In the end Betty decides to go and look for him. As she is out calling his name, she starts to imagine her son being dead or lessened based on what she sees. For example when she sees a pond she imagines that her son may have drowned in it. Eventually she discovers that Johnny is safe and well, and has merely been playing for hours, imagining himself selection stars out of the sky, being a hunter and being a warrior.The contrast between the imagination of a child, with an extra layer of innocence due to his mental handicap, and his mother is incredibly stark. While Johnnys imagination has kept him content for hours, Bettys has, in a shorter space of time, made her start to contemplate suicide due to the grief it instilled within her. We then find that Susan has recovered for exactly the same reason that Betty felt such despair, all she was able to call in about were horrible ways in which Betty and Johnny couldve been hurt and was able to draw strength from her sadness at being unable to help.In the end, when asked what he had been doing for hours, Johnny merely replies The cocks did crow to-whoo, to-whoo, and the sun did shine so cold. Wordsworth called this response Johnnys glory, which very accurately sums up the Romantic ideal of childhood and innocence being a thing to cherish, which was one of the messages Wordsworth and Coleridge tried to present with the Lyrical Ballads.