"Ode: Intimations of Immortality" Wordsworth
Case 6 Figure 7 (57b)
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Figure 7. Wordsworth, William. Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. [Strand, E. Arnold, New York, S. Buckley, 1903]. Illustrated by Walter Crane.
This poem was published in 1807, and has been popular ever since. Based on the Platonic doctrine of recollection, it asserts that the process of learning is simply recalling through the process of living and learning, and to the adult mind, knowledge gained in a pre-existent spiritual realm lost to the individual at birth. In aesthetics, this is signified by the androgyne, who embodies the masculine and feminine principles of the universe. It is believed that as we journey in life we seek out our former self or selves, our spirit, and attempt to recover or rejoin our other half to make ourselves complete. The poem is a celebration of childhood. Nostalgia and recollection assist the aged to return to their youth. Nostalgia, memory, and recollection maintain a continuity of experience, or, education, as one generation passes on its body of wisdom to the next.