372:", Robbins argues, Wordsworth's "We Are Seven" "promotes a traditional link between individuals and the place they were born." Peter DeBolla argues that the poem is irresolvable partly because of the math in the poem—the evenhanded tension between even and odd. Maureen McLane reads the poem in the context of moral philosophy and argues that while the girl and the questioner speak the same language, they have wholly different views about time, death, and counting. John Mahoney argues, "The seemingly silly squabble between adult and child is already a revelation of the early and continuing tension in the poet between the hope for a perpetual bliss and the incursion of a harsh reality."
119:
sight of the
Lyrical Ballads as it was going through the press at Bristol, during which time I was residing in that city. One evening he came to me with a grave face, and said, 'Wordsworth, I have seen the volume that Coleridge and you are about to publish. There is one poem in it which I earnestly entrate you will cancel, for, if published, it will make you ever lastingly ridiculous.' I answered that I felt much obliged by the interest he took in my good name as a writer, and begged to know what was the unfortunate piece he alluded to. He said, 'It is called "We are seven."' Nay! said I, that shall take its chance, however, and he left me in despair.
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My friends will not deem it too trifling to relate that while walking to and fro I composed the last stanza first, having begun with the last line. When it was all but finished, I came in and recited it to Mr. Coleridge and my Sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, and I should sit down
118:
I objected to the rhyme, 'dear brother Jim,' as being ludicrous, but we all enjoyed the joke of hitching-in our friend, James T —'s name, who was familiarly called Jim. He was brother of the dramatist, and this reminds me of an anecdote which it may be worth while here to notice. The said Jem got a
71:
came to him while travelling alone across
England in October 1793 after becoming separated from his friend, William Calvert. This solitude with nature he claimed encouraged him to reach a deeper understanding where the experience was no longer just for pleasure, as it was in his earlier days, but
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points out that there is a subconscious cleaving to an idea to escape from a feeling of separation. The little girl in the poem is unable to realise that she is separated from her dead siblings. She is unable to understand death, and she is forever in an imaginative state of being, and nature is
59:. It describes a discussion between an adult poetic speaker and a "little cottage girl" about the number of brothers and sisters who dwell with her. The poem turns on the question of whether to account two dead siblings as part of the family.
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since I met the little Girl there in 1793. It would have given me greater pleasure to have found in the neighbouring hamlet traces of one who had interested me so much; but it was impossible, as unfortunately I did not even know her
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He questions her further, asking where they are, and she simply responds that two are in Wales, two are at sea, and two are buried in a churchyard near her home. He is confused by her answer and asks:
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The poem is a dialogue between a narrator who serves as a questioner and a little girl, with part of the evolving first stanza contributed by
Coleridge. The poem is written in ballad form.
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to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my task were finished.' I mentioned in substance what I wished to be expressed, and
Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza thus:-
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142:, Wales, claim Wordsworth was inspired to write the poem after seeing a gravestone at St Mary and All Saints Church in the town; this gravestone is marked "We are Seven."
80:. Although there is no documentation on what the little girl actually told him during their conversation, she interested Wordsworth to such an extent that he wrote:
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101:. The collection was proposed in March because Wordsworth needed to raise money for a proposed journey to Germany with Coleridge. These poems were included in
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Susan
Wolfson, The Questioning Presence: Wordsworth, Keats, and the Interrogative Mode in Romantic Poetry, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986) 50.
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Maureen N. McLane, Romanticism and the Human
Sciences: Poetry, Population, and the Discourse of the Species (Cambridge University Press, 2000) 53–62.
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Frances
Ferguson, Solitude and the Sublime: Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Individuation (New York: Routledge, 1992), 164.
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emphasised the reducing tone of the questioner, which allows the girl to articulate a more
Romantic view of presence.
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More recent scholarship, however, focuses on the sociological context for the poem, written the same year that
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I have only to add that in the spring of 1841 I revisited
Goodrich Castle, not having seen that part of the
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627:. Solitude and the Sublime: Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Individuation (New York: Routledge, 1992),
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argues that the poem stages a debate about personification in language. Scholars including Aaron Fogel,
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Wordsworth began to write the poem in early 1798 while working on many other poems modelled on the
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After the little girl repeats that they were seven in number, the narrator, frustrated, replies:
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He questions her further, trying to have her admit that there are only five but she responds:
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in May 1798 and was soon after published anonymously. In 1820, the poem was republished as a
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The
Questioning Presence: Wordsworth, Keats, and the Interrogative Mode in Romantic Poetry
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Romanticism and the Human Sciences: Poetry, Population, and the Discourse of the Species
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with a few written by Coleridge. Wordsworth describes the moment of finishing the poem:
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interfering to keep the girl from understanding her separation from her siblings.
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also hinted at a darker side. Immersed in these feelings, Wordsworth came to
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and met a little girl who would serve as the model for the little girl in
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She then describes how they die, which prompts the narrator to ask:
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The poem ends with a divide between the child and the narrator:
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William Wordsworth’s ‘We Are Seven’ and the First British Census
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William Wordsworth's 'We Are Seven' and the First British Census
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William Wordsworth's 'We Are Seven' and the First British Census
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He transitions to describe a girl whose beauty pleased him:
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Heather Glen, "'We Are Seven' in the 1790s," Grasmere 2012:
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William Wordsworth A Biography: The Early Years 1770–1803
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Aaron Fogel, "Wordsworth's "We Are Seven" and Crabbe's
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Selected Papers from the Wordsworth Summer Conference
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364:in his 1796 census proposal to Parliament. Like
135:and titled "The Little Maid and the Gentleman".
187:He begins to question her about her siblings:
30:For the 1989–1991 Welsh television series, see
688:Lyrical Ballads: With Pastoral and Other Poems
225:"Beneath the church-yard tree." (lines 30–32)
878:Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey
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239:"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,"
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302:And said, "Nay, we are seven!" (lines 67–69)
288:"Their spirits are in Heaven!" (lines 65–66)
211:"Sweet Maid, how this may be?" (lines 27–28)
641:. New York: Fordham University Press, 1997.
233:"Their graves are green, they may be seen,"
994:On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
735:
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676:, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986)
277:"If they two are in Heaven?" (lines 61–62)
153:The poem begins with the narrator asking:
648:(Cambridge University Press, 2000) 53–62.
634:. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967.
200:And wondering looked at me. (lines 13–16)
166:What should it know of death? (lines 1–4)
655:. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
36:Caroline Birley § Children's author
34:. For 1879 book by Caroline Birley, see
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349:An Essay on the Principle of Population
285:"But they are dead: those two are dead!
857:Three years she grew in sun and shower
459:"St Mary and All Saints Church, Conwy"
266:"And eat my supper there (lines 36–48)
183:—Her beauty made me glad. (lines 9–12)
114:'A little child, dear brother Jim,' —
103:Lyrical Ballads and A Few Other Poems
67:Wordsworth claimed that the idea for
38:. For the 1955 book by Una Troy, see
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850:Strange fits of passion have I known
318:Interpretation and critical response
299:The little Maid would have her will,
296:'Twas throwing words away: for still
208:"Yet you are seven; I pray you tell,
683:. New York: McClure Phillips, 1907.
560:, (Penrith: Humanities Ebooks, 2012
191:"Sisters and brothers, little Maid,
97:for a joint poetry collection with
836:She dwelt among the untrodden ways
310:and the full text can be found on
222:"Two of us in the church-yard lie,
197:How many? seven in all," she said,
180:Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
40:Una Troy § After World War II
27:Poem written by William Wordsworth
25:
639:William Wordsworth: A Poetic Life
251:"And there upon the ground I sit—
245:"My stockings there I often knit,
163:And feels its life in every limb,
157:A simple child, dear brother Jim,
1099:Christopher Wordsworth (brother)
931:Composed upon Westminster Bridge
780:
700:
690:. London: Biggs and Cottle, 1802
306:Ownership of the poem is in the
274:"How many are you then," said I,
1127:(birthplace and childhood home)
980:Ode: Intimations of Immortality
619:Wordsworth: A Re-Interpretation
174:She had a rustic, woodland air,
1022:Character of the Happy Warrior
573:." ELN 48.2, Fall/Winter 2010.
543:: Poetry and the Anti-Census,
530:." ELN 48.2, Fall/Winter 2010.
257:"And often after sun-set, Sir,
160:That lightly draws its breath,
138:Some guidebooks and locals in
1:
1008:The World Is Too Much with Us
957:I travelled among unknown men
632:Wordsworth's Poetry 1787–1814
586:(Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2001)
487:Wordsworth 1802 pp. xxx, xiii
219:"Seven boys and girls are we;
1187:Poetry by William Wordsworth
945:I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
843:A slumber did my spirit seal
263:"I take my little porringer,
242:"And they are side by side."
1094:Dorothy Wordsworth (sister)
987:Resolution and Independence
681:Poems by William Wordsworth
260:"When it is light and fair,
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1089:Dora Wordsworth (daughter)
248:"My 'kerchief there I hem;
123:The collection, including
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924:The White Doe of Rylstone
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621:. London: Longmans, 1954.
496:Hartman 1967 pp. 143–145
439:Moorman 1968 pp. 372–373
430:Moorman 1968 pp. 369–371
254:"I sit and sing to them.
236:The little Maid replied,
177:And she was wildly clad;
32:We Are Seven (TV series)
1104:Samuel Taylor Coleridge
49:" is a poem written by
666:48.2, Fall/Winter 2010
604:Mahoney 1997 pp. 75–76
545:Studies in Romanticism
421:Wordsworth 1907 p. 293
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910:Poems, in Two Volumes
686:Wordsworth, William.
679:Wordsworth, William.
194:How many may you be?"
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53:and published in his
810:Anecdote for Fathers
370:The Deserted Village
1001:The Solitary Reaper
871:Michael, a Pastoral
658:Robbins, Hollis. “
644:Maureen N. McLane,
630:Hartman, Geoffrey.
541:The Parish Register
478:Hartman 1967 p. 144
409:Moorman 1968 p. 237
400:Moorman 1968 p. 232
1072:Guide to the Lakes
744:William Wordsworth
448:Bateson 1954 p. 49
322:In his preface to
127:, was accepted by
51:William Wordsworth
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973:My Heart Leaps Up
865:The Matthew poems
705:Works related to
16:(Redirected from
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1166:Wordsworth Trust
1125:Wordsworth House
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966:London, 1802
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18:We are Seven
1151:(1813-1850)
1149:Rydal Mount
1145:(1808-1811)
1139:(1799-1808)
1133:(1797-1798)
1054:The Prelude
1038:The Recluse
584:Art Matters
95:ballad form
1192:1798 poems
1181:Categories
1143:Allan Bank
917:Peter Bell
885:Poor Susan
772:Lake Poets
767:Early life
388:References
312:wikisource
63:Background
824:Lucy Gray
547:48 (2009)
133:broadside
376:See also
146:The poem
1159:Related
464:2 March
1082:People
760:Topics
1118:Homes
1064:Prose
140:Conwy
89:name.
466:2015
368:'s "
664:ELN
662:.”
526:, "
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