I have been arguing so far for the presence of a paradigm of deconstruction in the image of childhood, and have further suggested that the use of this image precludes its being used to provide closure or metacomment. That is to say, the adult recognises the apparent impossibility of becoming a child and therefore also recognises the implicitly partial or incomplete status of his representation of the child. The imperative towards self-correction which the image of the child provides is thus always tinged with an insecurity, as the ‘essence’ of childhood remains at an unregainable and mysterious distance. Wordsworth’s ‘To A Highland Girl’ (Poetical Works, III, 73–5) for example, beautifully dramatises the urgencies of identification which beset the adult as he beholds a beautiful childhood: Thou art to me but as a wave Of the wild sea; and I would have Some claim upon thee, if I could, Though but of common neighbourhood. What joy to hear thee, and to see! Thy elder Brother I would be Thy Father—anything to thee! (11. 55–61)