William Wordsworth's Poem 'My Heart Leaps Up'

"My Heart Leaps Up" Poem

• Written by William Wordsworth, a British Romantic poet, on March 26, 1802, at Dove Cottage in Grasmere
• Describes joy felt at viewing a rainbow
• Originally written without alterations, first published in Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807

Context and Connection to Other Works

• Written the day before starting "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
• The last three lines are used as part of the epigraph to "Intimations of Immortality"
• May provide insight into interpreting "Intimations of Immortality"

Critical Analysis

• The poem may indicate Wordsworth's state of mind while writing "Intimations of Immortality"
• The rainbow may symbolize the constancy of Wordsworth's connection to nature
• Celebrates "the continuity in Wordsworth's consciousness of self"
• Draws parallels to the rainbow of Noah and the covenant it symbolized (Genesis 6:9-11:32)
• The phrase "bound each to each" implies the presence of a covenant
• Harold Bloom suggests the rainbow symbolizes the survival of Wordsworth's poetic gift
• The poem recalls memories of joy as a child

Literary Analysis and Criticism

• William Blake disliked Wordsworth's use of the phrase "natural piety"
• Blake believed that man was naturally impious and therefore Wordsworth's phrase contradicts itself
• Fred Blick speculates that the word "piety" at the end of the last line is a deliberate geometrical pun, symbolizing continuity
• Wordsworth loved geometry and may have made the same pun on "piety" elsewhere

The Paradox "The Child is the Father of The Man"

• A statement that sounds contradictory at first reading but is meaningful in deep analysis
• Means that every child of the present is a potential father for the future, and every father of the present was once a child
• Infancy is the past of a child, and manhood is their future

Poem Summary

• The poem is about the poet's feelings of joy and happiness when reminded of their childhood by a rainbow in the sky