Summary

"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a long-form lyric poem divided into 11 stanzas. In the first stanza the speaker begins by reminiscing about their youth, “a time when meadow, grove, and stream,/the earth, and every common sight,/to me did seem/apparelled in celestial light” (1-4). They lament the fact that in their adulthood, things are not like this anymore, and due to their more mature perspective they are unable to see the world as they used to, with wonder and innocence. In the second stanza, they continue this lament, praising the natural world for its beauty, saying things like “lovely is the Rose” and “Waters on a starry night/are beautiful and fair” (14-15). In spite of being able to appreciate this beauty, however, they still feel “that there hath...