"Anecdote for Fathers" (full title: "Anecdote for Fathers, Shewing how the practice of Lying may be taught" ) is a poem by William Wordsworth first published in his 1798 collection titled Lyrical Ballads, which was co-authored by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A later version of the poem from 1845 contains a Latin epigraph from Praeparatio evangelica: "Retine vim istam, falsa enim dicam, si coges,"^[1] which translates as "Restrain that force, for I will tell lies if you compel me."^[2]

The poem assumes the point of view of a father who recalls taking a walk with his five-year-old son, Edward, at Lyswin farm. During the walk the man contemplates his two favourite locations—the Liswyn farm and Kilve's shore—and his current emotions.^[3] Later, the narrator asks Edward whether he prefers Liswyn or Kilve.^[4] Having received “Kilve” as an answer with no further explanation, he continuously presses the child for more details.^[5] The boy justifies his preference by the absence of a weathervane in Kilve.^[6]

Five-year-old Edward from “Anecdote for Fathers”, as stated by Wordsworth himself, was based on a boy named Basil—the son of Wordsworth's friend, Basil Montagu. Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, looked after little Basil, who at the time of writing “Anecdote for Fathers” “had now been with the Wordsworths for three years”.^[7] Despite Wordsworth's explicit identification of the boy as Basil Montagu's son, and many critics promoting that reading,^[8][9] Simpson suggests that the inspiration for the figure of Edward may have come from Caroline, the poet's daughter with a French woman named Annette Vallon.^[10][11] Thompson makes use of Simpson's analogy concerning the children's age and puts forward a theory that Edward was modelled on Maria, the child of John Thelwall—another one of Wordsworth's friends. Wordsworth possibly learned about Maria from Thelwall's poems and letters and got inspired by her connection with the rural region as described by Thelwall in his writings.^[12] Thelwall's relationship with Wordsworth is also thought to be the inspiration behind the nature of the conversation in the poem.^[13] Due to his radical views, John Thelwall was sentenced for treason and later acquitted.^[14] Wordsworth mentions Thelwall's trial in his commentary on the setting of the poem given to Isabella Fenwick.^[15] The interrogations that occurred right after it may be reflected in the poem, as it introduces the atmosphere of control and repression.^[16] Little Edward becomes there "a defendant being grilled by an aggressive prosecutor".^[17] The locations mentioned in "Anecdote for Fathers" cause disagreement among the scholars. Although many claim "that 'Kilve' (…) refers to Racedown and 'Liswyn farm' to Alfoxden"^[18] (both Racedown and Alfoxden being residences of the Worthsworths,^[19] which they occupied with little Basil Montagu^[20]), there is evidence for the name 'Lyswin farm' emerging from Llyswen, where John Thelwall retired.^[21]

"We Are Seven" is one of Wordsworth's poems repeatedly mentioned alongside "Anecdote for Fathers".^[61][62] The two poems are placed one after the other in all editions of Lyrical Ballads.^[63] They both introduce child figures who are believed to have been inspired by the children Wordsworth met in his life—Basil Montagu and a girl from the Goodrich Castle.^[64] The main similarity between the poems is their structure built upon various polar oppositions, with the nature-culture one in the centre.^[65] Both texts express this opposition through the conflicted figures of an adult and a child, whose miscommunication and "alienation" are triggered by the adult speaker's seemingly simple question.^[66] In each case, the readers feel more empathetic towards the children.^[67] The speakers are presented as the ones being oppressive and nagging, whereas the children attempt to defend themselves through acts most natural to them. The initial dialogue, then, transforms into an interrogative monologue.^[68] The narration of the poems uncovers the speakers' lack of comprehension of their own emotions and experiences,^[69] as well as their need for validation from children. The little boy and girl represent Wordsworth's vision of idealized childhood defined by "eternal innocence".^[70] Ultimately, the two questions posed to them by the speakers hold much more depth that it seems. The speakers—and thus the readers—are challenged to uncover a significant but universal gap between the adult's and the child's attitude and their modes of perception of the world.^[71][72] Although the title of "Anecdote for Fathers" may suggest otherwise, both poems are not typical anecdotes whose aim is to teach a simple edifying lesson. Instead, by juxtaposing "the rationalizing adult" and the "child's intransigent refusal to accept his categories", Wordsworth reveals his unwillingness to moralize.^[73]