The version of the poem used to create this study guide appears in: Applebaum, Stanley, editor. English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology. Dover Publications, Inc., 1996.

Note that parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“We Are Seven” is one of William Wordsworth’s earlier works, and possibly one of his most accessible. The piece was inspired by a real encounter he had with a young girl while traveling alone across England in 1793, although the actual discussion between the poet and the child was never chronicled. The poem was originally published in 1798 in Lyrical Ballads, a collection of pieces penned by Wordsworth and his contemporary, English Romanticist Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The poem describes a discussion between the speaker and a young girl he meets while wandering the countryside. When the speaker asks the girl how many children are in her family, she tells him there are seven. However, when the speaker asks her to elaborate, the girl informs him that two of her siblings are dead and buried in the church-yard that abuts their cottage. While the speaker attempts to explain to the girl that this means there are only five children in her family, she continues to insist that there are seven, telling the speaker that she still goes out to her siblings’ graves to knit, sing, and eat from time to time. In spite of the speaker’s efforts, they are unable to convince the girl that her siblings’ deaths mean they are no longer part of the family.