Question

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,"

Answer 1

Question 1: "Children perceive the world differently as they age."

Question 2: "At length the Man perceives it die away, / And fade into the light of common day."

Step-by-step explanation:

The poem talks about how the child sees the light and beauty of the world but as he grows older, the light fades away and he experiences the dark side of what the world has to offer, making him forget the "glories he hath known" about the world.

The support is how the Man's good persceptive of the world dies away. The light being the goodness of the world which faded away. (This also shows how the Man is taking the, once special and treasured light, for granted as he gets used to it with age).