"Old Man Traveling" and "We are Seven"

When reading Wordsworth’s “Old Man Traveling,” I cannot help but compare it to the Wordsworth poem we read for Tuesday, “We are Seven.” These poems present two contrasting characters as observed by the poet, one an old man and one a young girl. While at first glance they seem to be very different, written in entirely different meters and forms, they are connected through Wordsworth’s perception of youth, nature, and death. Wordsworth describes the young girl as “rustic” and “wildly clad” while describing the old man as “insensibly subdued” and as having “long patience.” In this way, he sets up a dichotomy between youth and experience, though both are painted in a positive light. In addition, both poems set up a connection between the characters, nature, and death. This is actually common in many Wordsworth poems we have read this semester. Both characters seem to be accepting of death, though all those dead have passed before their time. Though for the little girl it is a tree and for the old man it is the sea, both deaths are connected as a part of nature, implying that they aren’t really dead, but have just passed away to become eternal through the beauty of nature.