“The Rainbow” by William Wordsworth 

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

From considering the title, the reader can notice that it is very simple and it doesn't create so many expectations: he only expects the content to create happiness because the rainbow is brightly colored.

The poem it's arranged into four stanzas, which has a different number of lines; moreover there is a parallelism between the first and the third stanzas: each of them is composed by two lines, but the reader must read the poem to understand why.

After the reader has considered the title and the layout, and since they don't create specific expectations, the reader might be eager to read the text.

In the first stanza, the speaking voice says that whenever he looks at a rainbow, his heart leaps up; in the second stanza the speaking voice informs the reader that this has happened since he was born and he hopes that will happen also in future. In the last two stanzas the speaking voice said that the child is the father of the man, and that he wish his days to be bound each by natural piety.

After reading the poem, the intelligent reader understands that the first two lines introduce the poet's statement and the colon creates a transition from the statement to its explanation.

Moreover the repetition of the word “So” in line three, four and five, underlines speaking voice's life step; each line ends with a step: “life began”, “man”, “grow hold”.

The words “Child” and “Man” have both a capital letter that underlines their connection: they are connected by the use of a paradox, that apparently is contradictory, but on a second look the intelligent reader understands that the speaking voice hopes to maintain the emotional response that has taken place in his life since he was born, because child have less rationality and are more emotionally suggestible.

In conclusion, the intelligent reader understands that the poet thinks that child enchant easier than adults, and he hopes to maintain the emotional response that has taken place in his life since he was a child.