Read the poem.
excerpt from "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth
In this poem, Wordsworth conveys his belief that as people age, they lose sight of the joy and purity of life that they experienced as children.
V
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
VI
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a Mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.
Question 1
Part A
What is a theme in the poem?
Children perceive the world differently as they age.
Experience reveals the beauty of the world.
Kindness is the world's most powerful force.
The world is inherently dark and hopeless.
Question 2
Part B
Which lines best support the answer in Part A?
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,"
"At length the Man perceives it die away, / And fade into the light of common day."
"But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home:"
"Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; / Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,"
