"Recollections of Early Childhood"

Paper Summary:

This poem is about the innocence of childhood that makes everything awesome and how over time this luster is lost. The poet also explains what he feels are the causes of this phenomenon. Wordsworth uses many literary devices in 'Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood', including metaphor, rhyme, personification, imagery and repetition to describe his thoughts and views.

From the Paper:

"It is important to first note the literary devices Wordsworth uses throughout the poem. The rhyme scheme, though seemingly erratic, provides a flow to the poem. This is enhanced by the author's use of varied meter. By combining lines with many syllables with more concise ones the poem is broken up into more defined thoughts, creating a kind of "poem within a poem" effect. These two features occur throughout the poem and enhance its overall effect. Another literary device that is used throughout the poem is repetition. This occurs most frequently with the images of spring. One prime example is the near exact replication of the lines involving the seasonal images of birds singing and lambs bounding in stanzas three and ten. This particular case allows the author to demonstrate his change in mindset. He goes from grieving over the fact that the spring scene presented is not as splendid to an ability to put this grief aside and "rather find / Strength in what remains behind" (180-181)."

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