"My Heart Leaps Up", also known as "The Rainbow", is a poem by the British

Romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

. Noted for its simple structure and language, it describes joy felt at viewing a rainbow.

Writing the poem

Wordsworth wrote "My Heart Leaps Up" on the night of March 26, 1802. Earlier that day, he had written "To The Cuckoo". He was in

Dove Cottage Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of ...

, Grasmere, with his sister, Dorothy. After he wrote it he often thought about altering it, but decided to leave it as it was originally written. It was published as part of '' Poems, in Two Volumes'' in 1807. The day after he wrote "My Heart Leaps Up" Wordsworth began to write his more ambitious " Ode: Intimations of Immortality". The last three lines from "My Heart Leaps Up" are used as an epigraph to "Intimations of Immortality". Some scholars have noted that "My Heart Leaps Up" indicates Wordsworth's state of mind while writing the larger poem and provides clues to its interpretation.

Critical analysis

Some commentators have speculated that Wordsworth felt such joy because the rainbow indicates the constancy of his connection to nature throughout his life. Others have said that it celebrates "the continuity in Wordsworth's consciousness of self", Because the rainbow is part of a circle, Fred Blick has been able to demonstrate that the word ‘piety’ at the end of the last line makes an intentional, geometrical pun (signaled by the phrase ‘bound each to each’), symbolizing continuity and infinity. The pun blends ‘a state of infinite pi / π’ with the normal meaning of ‘reverence’. Wordsworth loved geometry and used the same, geometrical pun on ‘piety’ twice elsewhere. Many commentators also draw parallels to the rainbow of Noah and the covenant that it symbolized. Wordsworth's use of the phrase "bound each to each" in the poem also implies the presence of a covenant. Some commentators have drawn further parallels with the story of Noah.

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...

has suggested that Wordsworth casts the rainbow as a symbol of the survival of his poetic gift, just as the rainbow symbolized to Noah the survival of mankind. Bloom suggests that Wordsworth's poetic gift relied on his ability to recall the memories of his joy as a child.

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

disliked Wordsworth's use of the phrase "natural piety". Blake believed that man was naturally impious and therefore Wordsworth's phrase contradicted itself.

In popular culture

"The child is the father of the man" is the title of a chapter in

Machado de Assis Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short sto ...

's 1881 novel ''

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas ''The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas'' ( pt, Memorias Posthumas de Braz Cubas, modern spelling ''Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas''), also translated as ''Epitaph of a Small Winner'', is a novel by the Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado ...

''.

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

' songs " Surf's Up" (1971) and " Child Is Father of the Man" (2011) quote the poem.

Blood, Sweat & Tears Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is a jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. In addition to original music, the group has performed popular songs by Laura N ...

named their 1968 studio album ''

Child Is Father to the Man ''Child Is Father to the Man'' is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in February 1968. It reached number 47 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in the United States. History As a teenager, Al Kooper went to a concert for jazz trumpe ...

''.

References

Bibliography

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External links