Summary of My Heart leaps Up When I Behold | The magic of Words

UNIT TWO :

MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN

MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD

ENGLISH | THE MAGIC OF WORDS

William Wordsworth

‘My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold’ is a beautiful poem composed by a famous English romantic poet William Wordsworth. The poet is a great lover of nature as well as true worshiper of God and nature. In this poem, the poet recollects (remembers) the experiences of his childhood days and gives his emotion and feeling a meaning that the poet wants continuity of life and nature. For him, nature is both God and religion.

In this poem, he not only presents the reality of human life but also shows a deep respect to God and religion wishing his days to be bound each to each by natural piety.

The poet says that he becomes very happy to see the nature going on in the same way. So, he says that his heart leaps up with great happiness or joy when he sees a beautiful rainbow in the sky. The colourful rainbow symbolizes the continuity of the nature and colourful human life. The rainbow was there in the sky when the poet was born and he has now become a matured man. He also wants the rainbow to be in the sky when he has become a matured man. He also wants the rainbow to be the same in future. He says that present is the result of the past and future will be the result of the present. In this way the poet shows that time and nature are ongoing phenomena of universe. If there is any break in this continuation the poet wants to die. The poet also says that both are inevitable.

The poet presents his main idea of the poem through the paradoxical line “The Child (past) is the father (present) of the future.” The poet means to say that human life begins from childhood. A man can’t be a father without being a child. According to the poet, father means from whom the creation of new generation takes place. It is the child from whom the manhood begins. Thus the child is really the father of man. Yesterday’s child is today’s man (father) and today’s child is tomorrow’s father.

The poet also says that nature is God, religion and source of life and inspiration. He worships, loves and respects the nature. He also wishes the continuation of time (past, present and
future) in the nature in the same way.