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.

part a

what is a theme in the poem?

always be compassionate.

life is full of surprises.

childhood is magical.

with age comes wisdom.
part b

which lines best support the answer in part a?

"earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; / yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,"

"but he beholds the light, and whence it flows, / he sees it in his joy; "

"our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / the soul that rises with us, our life's star,"

"not in entire forgetfulness, / and not in utter nakedness,"