“We are seven”
William Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who was among the pioneers of the Romantic Age of Art. “We are seven” by William Wordsworth mainly talks about the subject of life and death. The poem was written in the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth (Labbe, 2011). It describes a conversation between a cottage girl and an adult who enquires about her family. The adult asks the child about the number of siblings she has, and she responds that they are seven brothers and sisters. However, from her description, she says that two of them are dead and buried in the churchyard, near where she lives with her mother. The poem then turns to discuss whether the girls should account for the two deceased siblings. In the conversation, Wordsworth shows the reader the contrast between a child’s innocence and tragedy. The little girl shows unparalleled love for her dead siblings even as the adult insists that she should not count them. She adamantly responds that “Nay, we are seven!”
This is an inspirational piece as it covers significant aspects of life. It explores the themes of life and death, innocence, and accepting the reality of tragedy, which are essential personal values in humanities and art (Martin, 1978). This poem presents the theme of tragedy and loss from the perspective of an innocence girl. Through the conversation between the child and the adult, it becomes quite apparent that the deceased often live in the memories of the living. It is evident that the child has unconditional pride and confidence in her dead siblings. She tells of how they would play before Jane passed on, then they were left to play around her grave with John before he died as well. There is an evident conflict between how the adult perceives death and how the child views it. The girl argues that her deceased siblings are still alive in her heart.
Likewise, my poem “Good Days” talks about the aspect of death and the perception of the same for the living. The poem narrates the memories of a good friend who passed on. The friend was always there for the narrator and knew how to change all the negatives to positives. The loyalty shown by him is another reason why the narrator remembers the good days. Just the way the little girl considers the deceased to be her siblings, the narrator in the poem still considers the deceased to be a friend. The last two lines that “You’ll forever be my friend because death did not make you an enemy” reaffirms the fact that death does not change the relationship between the living and the dead.
However, while Wordsworth’s poem is a dialogue between an adult and the child, “Good Days” is a monologue. Therefore, this gives the poem a sombre tone with some sense of nostalgia. The audience experiences the loss of a loved one and lives through the pain of the loss with the writer.