All poems · Level 2

My Heart Leaps Up (The Rainbow)

William Wordsworth, Poems, in Two Volumes, London, 1807 (text cross-checked against two independent transcriptions). Public domain. Source text.

Seeing a rainbow makes the poet's heart jump — as a child, as a man, and, he hopes, as an old man.

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My heart leaps up when I behold

The poet's own words. Read them slowly, twice.

Check yourself

What makes the poet's heart leap up? A rainbow A storm A song

“The Child is father of the Man” means… Children give orders Childhood shapes the adult Fathers never change

My heart leaps up when I behold

My heart jumps with joy when I see

Say it as: My HEART LEAPS UP when I be-HOLD

A rainbow in the sky:

A rainbow in the sky.

Say it as: A RAIN-bow IN the SKY:

So was it when my life began;

That is how I felt when I was a child.

Say it as: SO WAS it WHEN my LIFE be-GAN;

So is it now I am a man;

That is how I feel now that I am grown up.

Say it as: SO IS it NOW I AM a MAN;

So be it when I shall grow old,

May I still feel this when I am old.

Say it as: SO BE it WHEN I SHALL grow OLD,

Or let me die!

Or else let me die! (He means a life without joy is no life.)

Say it as: Or LET me DIE!

The Child is father of the Man;

The child we were shapes the adult we become.

Say it as: The CHILD is FA-ther OF the MAN;

And I could wish my days to be

And I wish every day of my life to be

Say it as: And I could WISH my DAYS to BE

Bound each to each by natural piety.

Joined to the next by love and respect for nature.

Say it as: BOUND EACH to EACH by NA-tu-ral PI-e-ty.