We Are Seven grave, St Mary's Churchyard, Conwy

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This grave is traditionally associated with a poem by Wordsworth. You can discover other interesting graves in this churchyard, including a Welsh poet's burial place, by following our mini tour of selected graves - click here to start.

After a visit to Conwy, the poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) wrote a poem in 1798 about a conversation with a child in a churchyard. The poem quotes the child saying: “And two of us at Conway dwell.”

This grave outside St Mary’s Church subsequently came to be regarded as the location of that conversation. Souvenir hunters broke off pieces of the tombstone until little remained above the ground. The iron cage, designed by Arts & Crafts architect Herbert Luck North, was constructed in the early 20th century to protect what was left.

The conversation seems to have fired Wordsworth’s imagination because the child insisted she was one of seven siblings. She was confident of this total but her explanations of her siblings’ whereabouts – including the two buried in the churchyard – didn’t satisfy Wordsworth’s more rational mind. The poem reflects on the child’s calm acceptance of death, and her apparent happiness despite the grief suffered by her family.

You can read - or listen to - the poem on this HistoryPoints page.

Postcode: LL32 8LD    View Location Map

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