The Innocence of Youth

In response to We Are Seven by William Wordsworth...


The poem brought to mind the quote from 1 Corinthians 13:11 that discusses the ways of being a child.
All the innocence and ignorance that exists within a child. I feel that the poem goes along with this idea
that children have a very different way of thinking and understanding. In many ways they are both logical and illogical.
In the poem, the little girl tells the speaker, when asked, that total there are seven children in her family.
She tells the speaker that two dwell in the church-yard. The speaker, as a logical adult would likely argue, tells the girl
that there are only five children then. The little girl is very persistent in the idea that there are seven siblings.
I think that the little girl's understanding of death is still very innocent. For her, they are still very much a part of her life.
She dances and plays and even eats around their graves. She is allowing them to still be a part of her life. Even if they are not physically there.
For her, just because they dwell in the church yard, that does not mean that they are no longer her brother and sister.
Her reasoning with the speaker comes across almost stubborn. And in the speaker's response you can tell that the speaker is
surprised by the child's persistence. When it comes down to it the child cannot reason with the reality of death. However, I think she has a point.
Regardless of whether or not her siblings are in the spiritual world or in this world, they are still her siblings.
This little girl definitely speaks like a child and thinks like a child.Furthermore, she shows no sign of putting away childish things anytime soon.
And there is a quality about her that is admirable. She is both logical and yet illogical. Many people see it as reasonable to consider death to destroy all existence of an individual;
at least to a rational adult. But to a child who thinks like a child, with innocence, it is logical to still acknowledge the deceased.
They do not see death in the same way that adults do. The child's view of death to some may seem unhealthy, while to others come across
as reasonable.