Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: William Wadsworth

  • Wordsworth’s “The Idiot Boy”: Disability and maternal love

    Elizabeth Lovett ColledgeJacksonville, Florida, United States In William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads (1798), the poem “The Idiot Boy” reveals a compassionate insight into the mental disabilities of young Johnny Foy, presenting him not as a horror to be confined to Bedlam or a similar institution, but as a child to be embraced, cared for, and loved.…