Group 1 William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a poet with quite a few notable works but one in particular that peaked my interest was the poem “We Are Seven” in which he details a meeting he had with a little girl he met in a cottage. Essentialy he asks this girl how many brothers and sisters she has and she says seven despite two of her siblings having passed away. They almost have a debate about it, with Wordsworth saying she has five siblings since two of them passed away but the little girl insisted, that it did not matter they were still her siblings and she had seven siblings. The reason this was interesting for me was firstly because Wordsworth chose to entertain the conversation. It shows to me that he was genuinly curious about what this little girl had to say, where as most adults would hear something like that and dismiss it Wordsworth decided to explore her thinking. Even though he doesn’t really understand her line of thinking, he tried to. Another reason this was interesting was because you can see a similar kind of thinking in a lot of people today and even in the past. Maybe not exactly the same thinking but what I’m talking about is people who keep good friends closer than most of their own family. Some may say those people aren’t your real family but to them they are and this is something I agree with. It is said that blood is thicker than water and while this is literally true it is not always figurativly true. You don’t get to choose your family and sometimes people are born into a situation where their family members are toxic people, but if they can find truly good friends who are good people that they relate to and can count on, then why would they not consider them family? Although the text is not making this direct correlation, that little girl is saying that even though her siblings may be dead they are still around and they are still family. She goes outside to play and even eat supper by the tree they are buried near and she sings to them. Despite them not being alive, they are still there with her just like despite someone not being family they are still there with you.