Summary

“My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” begins with the speaker describing the joy they feel when they see a rainbow in the sky. They relate that they have felt such joy at the sight of this natural phenomenon all throughout their life, from “when [their] life began,” to “now [that they] are a man,” and they hope that they will feel it in the future “when [they] shall grow old” (3, 4, 5). If ever they feel otherwise, they petition the reader to let them die. In the final three lines of the poem, the speaker says “the Child is the father of the Man,” and that they wish the rest of their days could be “bound each to each by natural piety” (7, 9).

Analysis

In spite of its brevity, “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” is a thematically dense...