Ode to Intimation of Immortality by William Wordsworth

Table of Contents Cite This Article × Cite This Article Choose a citation style and copy the reference. MLA 9 APA 7 Chicago Copy Citation Poetry Key Information Central Message: Growing up costs us a kind of visionary closeness to the world that we can never fully get back — but the memory of it, and what it hints about the soul, is enough to build a quieter, deeper kind of strength on. Speaker: A mature adult, closely identified with Wordsworth himself, mourning a lost intensity of feeling while working his way toward acceptance. Poetic Form: An irregular Pindaric ode in eleven stanzas, with no fixed line length or rhyme scheme. Themes: Childhood and loss, memory, the soul's pre-existence, nature, grief transformed into philosophical strength. Emotions: Grief and longing at first, moving through wonder, unease, and finally toward hard-won consolation. Time Period: The first four stanzas written in 1802, the remaining seven completed by 1804; first published 1807. Published Category: Appeared in …