My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

Youthful Joy in Nature

People talk a lot about Wordsworth's love of nature. That makes sense, because, you know, he wrote about the natural world a ton. This particular poem brings out a connection between this love of nature and youth. More than that, this connection is the source of deep and enduring joy for our speaker. That's familiar Wordsworth-ian territory, too. If you read many Wordsworth poems, you'll find that he often describes a type of bliss. Here, the speaker elevates nature to a near-religious state. Childhood plays a role in this bliss, because, after all, "The Child is father of the Man" (7). Wordsworth strives to remember his childhood and to rejoice in the same way he rejoiced when he was young. Good times.