2016-06-30
Number 9:
Wordsworth's Ode: "Intimations of Immortality"

William Wordsworth's majestic, consolatory recollection of celestial vision in childhood ("Heaven lies about us in our infancy!") lost in adulthood ("The things which I have seen I now can see no more"). For me, the most moving part of the poem is Stanza 9. As he looks back on his childhood experiences, Wordsworth has difficulty putting them into a framework that makes sense. But in spite of this, they:

     Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
     Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
     Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
     Our noisy years seem moments in the being
     Of the eternal Silence.


Yes, indeed.

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