My heart leaps up when I behold | Class 11 English notes

My heart leaps up when I behold summary in short

My heart leaps up when I behold | Class 11 English notes

“ My heart leaps up when I behold” has been composed by William Wordsworth, a great poet of nature belonging to a romantic age. In this poem, he recollects experiences of his childhood days and gives his emotion and feeling a meaning.

A poet is very much delighted to see the rainbow in the sky. He sees it at the state of his maturity. However, he believes that he had already seen the same rainbow even in his childhood days. To him, he has been able to build a strong relationship with nature, which has successfully been continued up to present. He is quite sure that the relationship will continue until the last hour of his life. He means to say that he will able to see the same rainbow even if he goes old. In the case of isolation from nature, he prefers to scarify his life as it holds no significance at all. Similarly, he uses a paradoxical sentence and tries to create a link between the past, present, and future.

The poet sees enter universe at the presence of God. Nature, for him, is all the source of human happiness. So, he wishes that the remaining days of his life should be spent in praise of his nature. He believes that worshiping nature is itself a kind of worship on the part of God. ( nature, for him, is all the source of human happiness, so, he wishes that the remaining days of his life should be spent in praise of nature. He believes that worshipping nature is itself a kind of worship on the part of God. )

1) Explain the paradox in “The child is the father of the man”.

Answer:  A paradox is a self contradictory sentence which seems to be opposite itself. However, it contents the universal truth in it. The given sentence is truly paradoxical as it seems to be totally opposite to what has generally be accepted. If it is judged from semantic point of view it creates a highly philosophical meaning which is universally acceptable. In fact, a person is not able to attain his maturity without moving from childhood days. So, present becomes the outcome of the past and hence future is always the outcome of present. Likewise, it is commonly believed that the thing we do at present will get reflected in future.

In the context of the poem, the poet composes his poem in his maturity on the basis of his experience of his past. He had perhaps planted the seeds for the creation of his poem in the past, because of it takes birth at present in his maturity.