We Are Seven

The Precious Little Life,

The subject of this poem is a conversation between a man and a girl. The man plays the role of person asking questions to a girl, who serves as a maid in a cottage, about her family. The “little maid” tells him about her siblings. The poem begins with the introduction of that little girl and the question that what a child can know about death.
The man describes the girl with whom he met few years back. She was eight years old and her hair was curly and thick. Her eyes were very bright and her simple beauty made him delighted. He asks her about her siblings and she answers that there are seven brothers and sisters including her in the family.
The man asks her where her brothers and sisters are and she says that two are in Conway (a town), two are at sea and two are dead and resting in churchyard. She lives near the graveyard with her mother. The man gets confused with the answer of the little girl and asks her that if two of them are dead than how she can have seven siblings. He tells her that if two are resting in churchyard, then she has only five siblings.
But the little girl replies to him that the graves of her two siblings are green and can be seen from her house. Both of them are resting in their graves side by side. She often sings a song for them while she knits her stockings or sews a handkerchief. Sometimes she eats her supper besides the graves of her siblings.
She further tells him how her sister Jane died because of a sickness. After her death, she and her brother John used to play around her grave. During the winter, her brother John also dies and he is now resting next to her sister Jane. But the man asks her again: “how many are siblings are you”, then and little girl quickly replies to him that we are seven. The man again tries to convince her that if the two of them are dead, how there can be seven brothers and sisters in the family. But the little girl sticks to her answer and says that they are seven brothers and sisters. The man finally gives up his efforts to convince her that after the death of two siblings, there are only five siblings left in the family.
This poem exhibits the innocence of children who know nothing about death. For the little girl, her two dead siblings are still with her, as she continued playing with them. Wordsworth explained in this poem that children understand more about life and death than the grown-ups, as we don't want to accept the death of our loved ones and mourn for them. Meanwhile, innocent children accept the changes after the death of their loved ones and continue their lives in the best possible way like that little girl.