The Child Is Father to the Man
‘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.
meaning
The Child Is Father to the Man - meaning Summary
Childhood Shaped by Adults
The poem challenges Wordsworth's famous statement that childhood shapes adulthood. Its speaker calls the phrase nonsensical, then reverses it: adults are the "fathers" of children, because they create and govern the conditions of childhood. The repeated argument exposes a tension between romantic ideals of innocent childhood and a harsher view of adult responsibility and power.
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