Wordsworth: We Are Seven

William Wordsworth was one of the great romantic poets of the time. He was also close friends with Samuel Coleridge. The two friends traveled together and influenced each others writings. In fact, Coleridge wrote the first stanza of We Are Seven.

In Wordsworth We Are Seven, the speaker encounters a young girl who Wordsworth says was based upon a girl he met in "the area of Goodrich castle" in 1973 (200). The speaker infatuated with her "rustic, woodland air" begins a conversation (line 9). Wordsworth makes an effort to emphasize the natural state of the heroine. She lives in and embodies nature. The young girl is different from other children her age. She lives like the romantic and apart from modern humanity. The child makes up her own world.  This can be seen further when the speaker asks about the young girls siblings.

"Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the church-yard lie,
Beneath the church-yard tree."

"You run about, my little maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five." (line 29-36)

The young girl refuses to say that there are only 5 children total in the family. She insists that there are seven. She grew up with her deceased brother and sister, to her they still live in her memory. Therefore, she refuses to say there are only five because to her saying that five instead of seven is the same as forgetting her deceased siblings. She states that the two are in Heaven, but they still have lived. Her defiance of the speakers insistence of five instead of seven is her way of acknowledging their memory.  Whether they are alive or dead is not important to the young girl. She cares about their souls and her memories of her siblings. The idea of being alive to be considered important or a person does not occur to her. The child lives in nature, not in the world. Therefore, she disregards the conventions of the world that the speaker is trying to impress upon her.