Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
Wordsworth wrote "We Are Seven" in the form of the ballad, which is one of the oldest forms of poetry. Ballads are often stories told in verse, and "We Are Seven" fits the ballad bill perfectly. Th...
Speaker
We don't know too much about the speaker. We don't know how tall he is, what color his eyes are, whether he is a cat person or a dog person, where he grew up on went to school. We do not know the v...
Setting
"We Are Seven" takes place in the British countryside, somewhere where there are rolling hills and forests. Though the poem doesn't explicitly say so, we're picturing it taking place in the Lake Di...
Sound Check
"We Are Seven" is written in the ballad form, which is an ancient form usually associated with storytelling. The ballad alternates lines of eight syllables with lines of six syllables, and thus has...
What's Up With the Title?
In "We Are Seven," the speaker of the poem and a little girl have an argument. He thinks that, since two of her siblings are dead, and four are alive, the kids in this family number five in all. Sh...
Calling Card
Wordsworth was all about clear and straightforward language. In the preface to Lyrical Ballads, where "We Are Seven" was first published, Wordsworth makes his desire to communicate with the everyma...
Tough-o-Meter
Don't let the occasional word like "porringer" or "ye" getcha down. "We Are Seven" is actually a pretty easy read. Wordsworth was all about being a man of the people, so he purposely wrote his poem...
Trivia
Wordsworth knew a little something about dead children; two of his own kids died in childhood. (Source.)Wordsworth was born in the ridiculously-named village of Cockermouth. You can visit his child...
Steaminess Rating
This poem's about the least sexy topic ever: dead children. If you're looking for some Romantic smut, might we suggest you head over and check out the poems of Lord Byron?
Allusions
Conway, Wales (25)