The child is father to the man

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

In the poem Wordsworth describes how the things that awakened emotion in him as a child stayed with him as an adult. He hopes that this will continue throughout his life.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889) wrote a poem on response to Wordsworth’s – ‘The Child is Father to the Man’. This was printed after Hopkins’ death.

‘The child is father to the man.’
How can he be? The words are wild.
Suck any sense from that who can:
“The child is father to the man.’
No; what the poet did write ran,
‘The man is father to the child.’
‘The child is father to the man!’
How can he be? The words are wild!

In this, Hopkins plays with the apparent illogicality of the ‘child is father to the man’ line. He even suggests that what Wordsworth actually wrote was ‘The man is father to the child’.

This seems to be just playfulness on Hopkins’ part, as is the parallel he made between ‘Words worth’ and ‘words wild’.

See also: the List of Proverbs.