P.L. Travers and William Wordsworth: Intimations of Immortality in the Banks Nursery

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 

The earth, and every common sight

                 To me did seem

            Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;--

             Turn wheresoe'er I may,

              By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

          The rainbow comes and goes, 

            And lovely is the rose; 

            The moon doth with delight

     Look round her when the heavens are bare;

            Waters on a starry night

            Are beautiful and fair;

     The sunshine is a glorious birth;

     But yet I know, where'er I go,

That there hath past away a glory from the earth...

 From " Ode: Intimations on Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth

I found another magical gem in my "Saving Mr. Banks"-inspired reading of Mary Poppins, the idea of which was taken straight out of Wordsworth's poem above.

Chapter nine is devoted to the Banks family twins, infants John and Barbara. We find them in the family nursery speaking to the sunlight and conversing with a starling, apparently a regular visitor. Mary Poppins, also gifted wit supranatural communication skills (surprise, surprise) joins the conversation, and soon the twins are discussing the limits of their elder siblings. John complains first about Jane:

"Why, only last Monday I heard Jane remark that she wished she knew what language the Wind spoke."

After Barbara goes on in a similar vein about their other dense family members, Mary Poppins explains that Jane and Michael were once were gifted with the same language skills as the twins now possess. The twins are shocked.

"What?" said John and Barbara together in very surprised voices. "Really? You mean they understood the Starling and the Wind and---"

 "And what the trees say and the language of the sunlight and the stars -- of course they did! Once," said Mary Poppins. 

Immediately realizing what this implies for their own futures, the twins insist that sheer determination will enable them to retain their infant gifts. The Starling, trying to be kind, explains:

"...You'll forget because you just can't help it. There never was a human being that remembered after the age of one -- at the very latest -- except, of course, Her." And he jerked his head over his shoulder at Mary Poppins.

John doesn't care that Mary Poppins is, in the words of the starling, "the Great Exception." He goes on desperately:

"Listen, listen, the wind's talking," said John, tilting his head on one side. "Do you really mean we won't be able to hear that when we're older, Mary Poppins?"

"You'll hear it all right," said Mary Poppins, "but you won't understand." At that Barbara began to weep gently. There were tears in John's eyes, too. "Well, it can't be helped. It's how things happen," said Mary Poppins sensibly.

The Starling gently jeers them but when he comes back for a visit, following the twin's first birthday party, and finds them babbling unintelligibly, their magical language skills lost, he is visibly disappointed,

He remained silent for a little while, staring into the cots. Then he shook himself vigorously.

"Well, well. I must be off. Back to my chimney. It will need a spring-cleaning, I'll be bound." He flew on to the window-sill and paused, Looking back over his shoulder.

"It's seem funny without them, though. Always liked talking to them -- so I did. I shall miss them." He brushed his wing quickly across his eyes.

So in P.L. Travers' world, not only are humans disappointed by their inability to communicate with nature, the reverse is true as well: nature is also disappointed by the unfortunate disconnect. Magical.

...trailing clouds of glory do we come 

               From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy! ...