1888 and 2015

I realized this morning that for years I have given Ralph Emerson credit for William Wordsworth's penned line I often haphazardly quote:

"[Children come into this world] trail[ing] clouds of glory."

This is the, sadly botched, rendition of it but the sentiment is there. Emerson must have been inspired by that too, because I remember writing those words in the margins of the notebook in American Renaissance Lit class. Then again, I remember a lot of skewed truths.

I have a great respect for poets and poetry in general. I find it incredibly beautiful. But I'll also admit that I tend to more easily connect with ideas presented clearly sans similes. Call me a millenial, and isn't that sad. The work of deciphering poetry has led to some deep and hauntingly alluring insights, but it takes mental energy and time. And ideally a teacher to help dig into all of the historical, literary, and socio-economic references.

However, I would like to know Wordsworth's thoughts about this line he wrote sometime in the late 1800's. Although I've miscredited it, incorrectly quoted it, and overall done a disservice to him; despite all that the point is that his words have stayed with me. I agree wholeheartedly with him that children come into this world trailing glory, agree that we forget parts of ourselves as we age, or perhaps miss the opportunities to remember, am inspired by him to believe we can remember a purer form of a self. And not just remember but to live it.

What would he say to that?

From William Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immorality from Recollections of Early Childhood", verse V, lines 1-7:

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come..."