Don't Question Me

“We Are Seven,” by William Wordsworth, at first glance appears to be a poem about a man tormenting a little girl over her deceased siblings. However, we quickly learn that is not the case. I have chosen lines thirteen through thirty six to analyze and provide a better understanding as to what is transpiring during this conversation. The man questions what children know of death and then he asks this little girl just how many siblings she has. She replies with seven, and that is where the argument begins. He argues five because two of her siblings have died. This conversational poem teaches that children know exactly what death is and what life after death suggests. The critique of the man in this poems reminds the reader not to forget those who have died, for their lives still count. The lives that once lived should be remembered by all. While physically they are gone, they are still spiritually among us. I want to take a look at what comes before the question he asks the little girl. The man thinks about a simple child and wonders what he or she knows about death. I believe the man wonders this because he knows that children are filled with life and is curious to discover more on their thoughts about death. This is why he asks the little girl the questions about her siblings. She is considered to be innocent and simple. The reader gets a decent detailed description of what the little girl looks like. Lines nine through twelve read, “She had a rustic, woodland air,/ And she was wildly clad:/ Her eyes were fair, and very fair;/ ¬¬-Her beauty made me glad.” He considers her to be fair and beautiful, which brings him joy. Before this stanza, we are told that she is eight years old, which hints that she might have the answer he is looking for. A person that is eight years old is very much a child and he wants a child’s perspective on this subect. Perhaps he isn’t filled with life and hope like children are. That could be why he wanted to ask a child. Also, the man uses the words “rustic” and “wildly.” Why is that? When I think of rustic, I think of rural in a sense. Maybe he’s saying that she is wise. If that is the case then it is understandable that she has a religious relationship. As far as the young girl being “wildly clad,” I think that maybe he is suggesting that she is wildly dressed. He could be saying this in order to remind us that she is a child and her outfit reinforces that reminder. Their argument begins at line thirteen when he asks the little girl about her siblings and carries through line sixteen. The argument begins with, “‘Sisters and brothers, little Maid,/ How many may you be?’/ ‘How many? Seven in all.’ She said,/ And wondering looked at me.” The man plays it smooth with his question, in hopes of an answer that he agrees with. He genuinely may want to know how many siblings she has, but he also may be wondering if she has any deceased siblings. He plays it smooth by killing two birds with one stone. She answers both of his questions, one he asked and one he wondered, without even knowing his intentions. She replies with, “Seven,” and seems perplexed as to why he asked this question. It’s seems as if she’s questioning his motive for asking her that question. It is known that she looked at him wonderingly. That tells the reader that she is confused as to why the question was asked. I almost get the sense that he intentionally chose this child knowing that two of her siblings have died. The way she is described in the beginning makes the reader get the feeling that she was intentionally sought out. The next two stanzas read, “‘And where are they? I pray you tell.’ She answered, ‘Seven are we;/ And two of us at Conway dwell,/ And two are gone to sea. / ‘Two of us in the church-yard lie,/ My sister and my brother;/ And, in the church-yard cottage, I/ Dwell near them with my mother.’” In this passage, the man asks where her brothers and sisters are. The girl tells him that two of her siblings are out of town in Wales, two of her siblings are off at sea (possibly fishermen), two of her siblings are dead, and she lives with her mother in a cottage at the church. I chose to analyze these two stanzas together because they are the answer to this man’s big question: What do children know about death? The little girl tells us that just because two of her siblings have died does not mean that they are no longer a part of her family. The man does not agree with this, which causes the argument. They juxtapose each other in the sense that one believes in the afterlife and one may not. So far, we have the question and answer. We know that four of her siblings are occupied with other things and that two of them are dead. Now, he gets to discuss her answer and give the little girl input about what he thinks. We come to lines twenty-five through twenty-eight. They read, “‘You say that two at Conway dwell,/ And two are gone to sea,/ Yet ye are seven! I pray you tell,/ Sweet Maid, how this may be.’” The man repeats the little girl’s answer, and then he questions her about how she arrived at the number seven, because two of her siblings are dead. He gives her one more chance to say what he thinks. The next stanza reads, “Then did the little Maid reply,/ ‘Seven boys and girls are we;/ Two of us in the church-yard lie,/ Beneath the church-yard tree.” The little girl basically tells him, “Look. There are seven of us even if two are dead.” She isn’t going to give her argument up. She refers to their graves versus them as people due to the fact that they are dead; however, she considers them to be alive spiritually and counts them as a part of her family. The last stanza that I want to examine reads, “‘You run about, my little Maid,/ Your limbs they are alive;/ If two are in the church-yard laid,/ Then ye are only five.” We have reached the man’s argument. He claims that because two of her siblings are dead then there are only five of them altogether. This little girl does not think that way. The man distinguishes the little girl from the two other siblings because she can move around while the other two cannot. From what has been read so far, it is known that she considers deceased lives to still be a part of their family. He doesn’t agree. The little girl has answered both of his questions. He now knows how many siblings she has and he also knows what she knows about death. The little girl knows that a life doesn’t end with death. She knows that the man is wrong and refuses to accept his point of view because she may be afraid that if she does then she will lose her faith. Perhaps she is alluding to some sort of religious afterlife, ensuring her that her two siblings are still alive but in a different way. She did mention that God rid her sister of pain by taking her life. The man does ask how many of them there are if two are in heaven. He does recognize that there is a heaven and that there is a life beyond the physical one. He also mentions that their spirits are in heaven. That tells the reader that he does acknowledge that there is a God and there is a heaven, but he doesn’t consider those lives to matter anymore. Because of what the man has said, we know that he doesn’t agree with her. This could be for a couple different reasons. Maybe he really just doesn’t consider a lost loved one to be a part of a family anymore. The other reason could be because he doesn’t believe that, spiritually, they exist anymore. I actually think it’s a little bit of both. To him, if they don’t spiritually exist then they don’t physically exist. This poem is simply put as a conversational exchange. Wordsworth could have staged this conversation in order to get a point across. The narrator asks the girl how many children her parents have. She not only gives him a number, but she also tells him where they are located. She also counts in two’s, which I think is really unique. It’s ironic that two are in Conway, two are out at sea, and two are dead. The man then accuses her of being wrong because he considers the life of a deceased person to no longer count. Like I mentioned previously, I think it is because he doesn’t believe in a spiritual afterlife whereas the young girl does. It makes sense. She and her mother live in the church-yard, which tells me that they have a very close relationship with God. I think that the main critique of this man is the fact that he doesn’t have that relationship. Maybe he is envious of her beliefs. That could be why he asks her in the first place. In the specific lines I have mentioned, one gets the imagery of Conway, which we are told is a seaport town in north Wales. There is the sea, perhaps those two siblings are sailors or fishermen. The next image is of the church-yard where her brother and sister are buried. We also see the cottage in the same yard where she lives with her mother. Lastly, we can see the little girl run about with her working limbs and we also get a description of the little girl. The little girl lives wild and free while the man may not. We may be seeing these images because he envies how free she is at such a young age. I get the sense that the man is uptight and reserved just from the language that he uses and the way he speaks. Maybe he wants to believe in an afterlife, but can’t bring himself to make that change. I think that he hopes the little girl can get him focused on bettering his life and making a change for the better. To me, that’s what the critique of this man is. He acknowledges the fact that there is a heaven, there are spirits, and there is a God. It could be that he needed someone to reinforce those things to get him on the right track. The response that he got from her wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but I think it’s what he needed to hear to make that change in his life. In my opinion, the lines I chose to explore help develop the previous stanzas because we get a better understanding of who these two speakers are. Physically, the little girl has four other siblings; however, emotionally and spiritually, she has six. She tells us that her sibling’s graves are green and that they are buried twelve steps from their front door. She sits by their graves and knits stockings as well as hems kerchiefs. She also sings to their graves. Sometimes she even eats her dinner with them. It’s almost as if she is repeating a routine from even before they died. This little girl seems to be very attached to these gravestones. She continues to tell the man stories about her deceased brother and sister, even though he isn’t buying it. He still insists that there are five of them. He doesn’t seem to understand that. This poem tells us that there are spiritually lost people in the world who need to be guided back. He just keeps saying, “No. There are only five of you because two are dead.” That is most of his argument. While that is the case, he fails to realize that a life continues on even after death. She fails to recognize where the man is coming from. The fact that the two deceased siblings are physically gone was never in question. It was the fact that they were still counted as a person after they were gone. The girl could have said, “You’re right. They are no longer here, but they are still very much alive in my heart and their spirits live one so I consider them to be with me.” She doesn’t do that. Maybe because she really just doesn’t want to agree with the man at all. Maybe she doesn’t understand what he is trying to say. There seems to be a sort of miscommunication between the two of them. It could be because this man is trying to dump this heavy concept on an eight year old child. They are both on different spiritual levels. The man fails, or maybe refuses, to realize that there is a spiritual world where the souls of her two dead siblings are residing. They both get frustrated at each other. She becomes flustered because he can’t see that there is a world beyond this one. He becomes frustrated because, in my opinion, he knows she is right but doesn’t want to admit it. If he admits it then he recognizes that there is a spiritual and religious world out there, and that may not be something he is ready to do. He is not ready to accept change. That is the critique that this girl seems to be pointing out. This poem is not just about tormenting this little girl, even though he becomes extremely frustrated with her. At first, that seemed to be the case, but with a closer look, this poem seems to be a critique of the narrator in this poem. I don’t really think the poet chooses a side. These two people do not live in the same world, and that is shown throughout the argument. I doubt that the argument will ever be resolved. I definitely think that the girl is right. The man doesn’t have much of an argument. He fails to realize that a life still counts even after death. This argument won’t be resolved until he decides to accept change.