We Are Seven

“We Are Seven” is a lyric poem by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote it in the spring of 1798 on a walking tour with his sister Dorothy and his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was recalling a young girl whom he’d met on a previous walking tour, at Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, in 1793. 

“We Are Seven” describes a young girl who believes herself to be one of seven siblings, even though two of her siblings are dead. The child’s refusal to understand or accept the fact of death hints at Wordsworth’s belief, shared by his fellow Romantic poets, in the special visionary and imaginative abilities of children. 

The poem was published in Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798; when Wordsworth published his first collection in 1815, he dropped part of the first line of the poem. 

The edition of the poem used in this study guide is from Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge, edited with an introduction, notes and appendices by R. L. Brett and A. R. Jones, Methuen, 1975, p. 66-68.

POET BIOGRAPHY

William Wordsworth was born in the small town of Cockermouth, Cumberland, England, on April 7, 1770. After his mother died when he was eight, he was sent to school in the area known as the Lake District, with which Wordsworth’s fame as a poet has always been linked. As a boy, he took many long walks exploring the lakes and countryside, and feeling a deep connection to nature. 

Wordsworth’s father, John Wordsworth, died when Wordsworth was 13. The family had sufficient financial resources, however, to allow Wordsworth to attend St. John’s College at Cambridge University. He did not enjoy his studies or university life generally, but nonetheless he graduated in 1791. He visited France twice, in 1790 and then for a year from 1791 to 1792, during which time he embraced the ideals of the French Revolution. 

Wordsworth had a close relationship with his sister, Dorothy, a bond that they maintained throughout their lives. In 1795, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and they became close friends. They collaborated on the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, which contained “We Are Seven” and marked the beginning of the Romantic period in English poetry. A second edition, including Wordsworth’s “Preface,” in which he explained his poetic principles, appeared in 1800. This was a prolific period for Wordsworth, during which he produced much of his best work. He completed “Ode: Intimations of Immortality“ in 1804, and an early version of The Prelude, a long, autobiographical poem, in the following year. His Poems in Two Volumes, appeared in 1807. Michael: A Pastoral Poem (1800) and The Ruined Cottage (1799 or 1800, later appearing in an expanded version in The Excursion in 1814), are two other notable works from this period.  

In 1802, Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson; they had five children. Wordsworth’s brother John drowned in a shipwreck in 1805, a tragedy that profoundly affected Wordsworth and resulted in “Elegiac Stanzas” in 1807. In 1812, two of Wordsworth’s children died, and he also became estranged from his longtime friend Coleridge, although late in life they patched up their quarrel to some extent. 

Following The Excursion, the first solo collected edition of Wordsworth’s poems appeared in 1815, assuring his reputation as a poet of national stature. In middle and later life, however, the quality of Wordsworth’s poetry declined. He also became a political and religious conservative, rejecting his earlier radicalism. In 1813, he accepted a government position as a Stamp Distributor (a collector of revenues). Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843. 

Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850, at the age of 80, at Rydal Mount, near Ambleside in the Lake District. His final version of The Prelude, the poem that he had been continuously revising throughout his life, was published posthumously that year. It is considered to be his masterpiece. 

POEM TEXT

———A simple Child,

That lightly draws its breath,

And feels its life in every limb,

What should it know of death?

I met a little cottage Girl:

She was eight years old, she said;

Her hair was thick with many a curl

That clustered round her head.

She had a rustic, woodland air,

And she was wildly clad:

Her eyes were fair, and very fair;

—Her beauty made me glad.

“Sisters and brothers, little Maid,

How many may you be?”

“How many? Seven in all,” she said,

And wondering looked at me.

“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.”

“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.”

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.”

“You run about, my little Maid,

Your limbs they are alive;

If two are in the church-yard laid,

Then ye are only five.”

“Their graves are green, they may be seen,”

The little Maid replied,

“Twelve steps or more from my mother’s door,

And they are side by side.

“My stockings there I often knit,

My kerchief there I hem;

And there upon the ground I sit,

And sing a song to them.

“And often after sun-set, Sir,

When it is light and fair,

I take my little porringer,

And eat my supper there.

“The first that died was sister Jane;

In bed she moaning lay,

Till God released her of her pain;

And then she went away.

“So in the church-yard she was laid;

And, when the grass was dry,

Together round her grave we played,

My brother John and I.

“And when the ground was white with snow,

And I could run and slide,

My brother John was forced to go,

And he lies by her side.”

“How many are you, then,” said I,

“If they two are in heaven?”

Quick was the little Maid’s reply,

“O Master! we are seven.”

“But they are dead; those two are dead!

Their spirits are in heaven!”

‘Twas throwing words away; for still

The little Maid would have her will,

And said, “Nay, we are seven!”

Wordsworth, William. “We Are Seven.” 1798. Poetry Foundation. 

SUMMARY

An adult male speaker meets an eight-year-old girl who lives in a churchyard cottage with her mother. He asks her how many siblings she has, and she replies that she is the youngest of seven, and the only one still living at home: two siblings are at sea, two have moved to another town, and one sister and one brother lie in the churchyard. The man says that, in that case, the family cannot number seven. The girl insists that they are seven, and the man again tries to convince her otherwise. The girl replies that the graves of her brother and sister can be seen; she often visits them in the graveyard and sings to them or eats her supper there. Jane, she says, died following an illness, and then one winter John departed also for the same place. They now lie side by side. The man questions her again about how many they are, if two are in heaven. Once again, the girl replies that they are seven. The man tries one last time to convince her that they are only five, but he realizes that he is wasting his time. The girl will not change her belief about the number of siblings she has.