Relationship between Childhood and innocence in Wordsworth poetry 
TOPIC: Discuss the relationship between the Imagination and childhood in Wordsworth’s poetry.
Romantic poets of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century expressed nostalgia for childhood. They revered it as a period where an individual secured joy, innocence and security. Childhood was not a transitory period in an individual’s life but rather; it was a state of mind. In the Romantic’s protest against this Age of Reason that brought widespread enlightenment and rationalism, the child was praised for their lack of intellectual capacity and their reliance on imagination. In William’s Wordsworth’s poetry, the child is framed as a child of nature. Nature is regarded as the source of a child’s experience and imagination. In the Wordsworth poems “Tintern Abbey,” “I wandered lonely as a cloud“ and “My Heart Leaps Up,” the relationship between the Wordsworthian child and imagination is one that allows for one to develop a strong bond with nature. The child’s imagination allows them to form an intense bond with nature. In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth has several boyish encounters where his emotions are prime as opposed to intellectual endeavours. As a boy, he thought of and imagined the mountains and woods. Their appearance manifested to him as “an appetite” or “a feeling and a love” (line 80). These raw emotions, which Wordsworth experiences is not due to external influences but because of the child’s imagination. Having “no need of a remoter charm” (line 81), nature appears to Wordsworth solely based on his youthful imagination and senses. It is an ecstatic exchange, in which all of nature seems holy and sacred to Wordsworth. This allows him to immerse himself in nature and truly become one with it. Furthermore, the imagination of a child allows the adult to see life in nature. When Wordsworth writes, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," the inference is that he is floating along aimlessly looking for any experience—something new that will spark his imagination. This is
Romantic poets of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century expressed nostalgia for childhood. They revered it as a period where an individual secured joy, innocence and security. Childhood was not a transitory period in an individual’s life but rather; it was a state of mind. In the Romantic’s protest against this Age of Reason that brought widespread enlightenment and rationalism, the child was praised for their lack of intellectual capacity and their reliance on imagination. In William’s Wordsworth’s poetry, the child is framed as a child of nature. Nature is regarded as the source of a child’s experience and imagination. In the Wordsworth poems “Tintern Abbey,” “I wandered lonely as a cloud“ and “My Heart Leaps Up,” the relationship between the Wordsworthian child and imagination is one that allows for one to develop a strong bond with nature. The child’s imagination allows them to form an intense bond with nature. In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth has several boyish encounters where his emotions are prime as opposed to intellectual endeavours. As a boy, he thought of and imagined the mountains and woods. Their appearance manifested to him as “an appetite” or “a feeling and a love” (line 80). These raw emotions, which Wordsworth experiences is not due to external influences but because of the child’s imagination. Having “no need of a remoter charm” (line 81), nature appears to Wordsworth solely based on his youthful imagination and senses. It is an ecstatic exchange, in which all of nature seems holy and sacred to Wordsworth. This allows him to immerse himself in nature and truly become one with it. Furthermore, the imagination of a child allows the adult to see life in nature. When Wordsworth writes, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," the inference is that he is floating along aimlessly looking for any experience—something new that will spark his imagination. This is