Connections between nature and death in "We Are Seven"

The emphasis on nature and immortality in Wordsworth’s We Are Seven shows an underlying Romantic idea about our connection to nature through death. The child in this poem treats her dead brother and sister as if they are still alive, causing the narrator of the poem surprise because he sees that they are obviously dead. The girl’s description of her brother’s and sister’s death surrounded by her playing outside with them before death or around their graves after their deaths ("So in the church-yard she was laid /And all the summer dry / Together round her grave we played / My brother John and I.”) shows a connection for the girl between death and nature. She associates playing and being outdoors with being with her dead siblings. Also, her sister Jane lay inside in bed in pain, and when she died she was buried outside, where she was no longer in pain. This positive association between nature and sensation that the girl makes emphasizes the healing qualities of nature. The immortality of the girl’s dead siblings that is only apparent when she is outside with them can be seen not only as a childish faith but also as an expression of the Romantic emphasis on nature and the idea that when we die, we become a part of nature. The girl probably wouldn’t have seen it this way, but this poem might be trying to put the idea into the narrator’s head and our heads subtly.