He first describes the innocence of his childhood, then his disparity and vanity of old age and lastly, the purity of his sister. ... In the last stanza he writes to not think of Spring's songs because Autumn has songs of her own. ... Wordsworth used it to express innocence and purity. ...
Then he becomes conscious of a shy and hidden thrush warbling forth "Death's outlet song of life". ... The song of the bird, which he is beginning to appreciate, induces him "a mystical state" from which come mystical visions: "To the tally of my soul,/ Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird/ While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed,/As to long panoramas of visions." ... The American elegiac sensibility--in Cooper, Melville, Thoreau, Mark Twain, James, and others--is most strongly engaged by the sense of lost modes of innocence, lost possibilities of brotherhood, magnanimity...
A hidden issue in the novel would be the absence of innocence amongst young children coupled with the task of taking on responsibility well beyond the tender age bracket. ... They locked themselves in for several days ate good food and sang songs to uplift each other's spirits. ...
