As young men, Wordsworth and Coleridge shocked the English-speaking world with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1797 and then, in 1800, with a second edition. Not only was the poetry striking for its personalized and imaginative approach, but the prefaces advocated everyday speech and attention to the common man.

It is worthwhile to step back for a moment here and consider where Wordsworth is coming from, especially worthwhile since he is not completely clear in the poem or in his personal statements. The poem might be understood as a sentimental statement about the glories of childhood an assertion that children are innocent. But behind this lies a more radical notion of reincarnation, taken over (like so much else in the Romantic era) from ancient Greece, specifically from Plato, be asserted that the soul is truly immortal, and is simply reincarnated in a new human being as its previous owner passes on. Wordsworth became aware after publication that this view of things shocked orthodox Christian readers, who understood the "immortality of the soul" differently.

Whatever: like Keats’ "Grecian Urn," this poem gives us an immediate picture of a world different from the one we inhabit., a time of dreamlike glory?an Eden--now lost. And more than in the Keats poem we are asked to watch the feelings of the narrator (lines 22 and following) in their boo-yea routine from grief to relief and happiness.

At line 36 the poem associates other creatures with humans, thinking again of universal happiness: But (there is always a but) then turns aside at 51, struck by the loss of the "glory and the dream." This pulls us back to the Platonic notion that birth is "but a sleep and a forgetting" (58) leading to the "prison" of everyday life (67). In this "prison" there are efforts at accommodation, especially through forgetting (83, the second mention) of past glory. A long address to the child (108-131) asks why he seeks adulthood so eagerly.

What "joy" does the poet then find, in the stanza from 132-170? It is important to get a sense of this saving feature, for it leads to yet more association?with birds, fountains, meadows, etc. And the poet concludes with a positive message: can you sum it up?