The Nature of Wordsworth's Childhood

The Nature of Wordsworth’s Childhood An Explication of To a Butterfly To A Butterfly Stay near me – do not take thy flight! A little longer stay in sight! Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy! Float near me; do not yet depart! Dead times revive in thee: Thou bring’st, gay creature as thou art! A solemn image to my heart, My father’s family! Oh! Pleasant, pleasant were the …

…childhood. We drift through these memories, glimpsing the Wordsworth of his youth, and by the end of the poem are made to realize how in many ways the child in Wordsworth is still alive. Yet as a man, the means of expression for the joys he feels in experiencing nature have changed. We come to the end of the poem, and in doing so have experienced ourselves the product of this change: the poem itself.