[heading style=โdefaultโ size=โ13โณ align=โcenterโ margin=โ20โณ id=โโ class=โโ]It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free By William Wordsworth [1770-1850][heading]
Relevant Background
William Wordsworth grew up in Englandโs Lake District and spent much of his life there.
- His parents died while he was young. This caused him to turn to nature early.
- Wordsworth is a nature poet. Wordsworthโs poetry describes scenes of natural beauty. He loved the sunset and considered it a sacred time.
- His poetry reveals his deeply spiritual and emotional response to nature.
- In this poem, Wordsworth shows his love for his ten-year-old daughter Caroline whom he visited in France. She resulted from a love affair in 1792 when he first visited France.
- Wordsworth makes two references to the bible. The reference to โAbrahamโs bosomโ stands for the trust and innocence of Caroline.
- The reference to the โTempleโ stands for Carolineโs closeness to nature. She is in the โinner shrineโ of the temple, unlike her father. Only special people, the high priests, could enter the inner shrine of a Jewish temple.
- Wordsworth argues she has a more intimate connection to nature than her philosophical father, the poet.
- This poem is a sonnet and has the following structure: an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet.
Summary
In the octave, Wordsworth focuses on the atmosphere of the evening. The opening line expresses the gentle and calm beauty of evening on the French Coast. Sunset is a sacred or holy time in many of Wordsworthโs poems. Wordsworth compares the time of day to a holy nun adoring God. He is praising the beauty of the evening. In the fifth line, the poet shows the beauty of the evening by suggesting that heaven has nested [broods] on the sea. He may mean that heaven is hovering over the sea at this time, thinking. Then Wordsworth senses the energy of the sea, maybe thinking that the calm sea has awoken for the night. He thinks that the motion of the tides makes a sound like thunder on the shore. The sea represents nature. The force of nature at work in the sea reminds Wordsworth of God.
In the sestet, Wordsworth focuses on his daughter. He addresses her, even though she may never read the poem. He argues that even though she may not think deeply about nature, she is part of nature because she is a child. He may have โsolemn thoughtsโ about the sacredness of nature, but she is intimately connected to nature. Therefore she is closer to nature than her father. She is sacred, like the sunset. She has a childlike faith in nature and doesnโt need to think about nature as her father does. Because she is natural, she is connected to God. Wordsworthโs connection to God is through his awareness and thinking about nature. God is close to her in a way that Wordsworth and others cannot know.
Explanation And Analysis
โIt is a beauteous evening, calm and freeโ is a very delicate and interesting sonnet by William Wordsworth the great Romantic poet of the Lake District. It features at its heart, the contrast between nature and religion and includes some stunning lines of poetry, expertly drawn together.
The poem opens calmly as Wordsworth sets the scene:
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Tis sinking down in its tranquillity;
What seems out of place here is the use of the simile โquiet as a Nunโ. The sound of the wordโnunโ alone seems to produce a deadening effect in contrast to the other words in the lines end โfreeโ โsunโ and โtranquillityโ. The closing effect of this word not only draws attention to the word itself but also allows for the imagery of the word and its religious connotation to strike the reader.
There is also a strong contrast between the word โfreeโ and โnunโ as a nun is someone is hardly free to do as they please. The onset of darkness here is though nevertheless soft and gentle, the night is approaching in its tranquillity.
This calmness doesnโt last in the next four lines in what are some breathtaking lines of poetry and certainly the strongest in the whole sonnet.
The gentleness of heaven broods oโer the Sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder โ everlastingly.
The interesting paradox here is that this power which is both that of nature and God is delivered with a soft feel and tone. The rhythm used in “eternal motion make” and the softness of “everlastingly” after the pause of the dash, belie the power of the words. It is a “sound like thunder” that is heard, not thunder, but a sound “like” thunder, which prompts the question what exactly was heard? The poem is certainly becoming interesting and far from a natural sketch. The last section of the poem features the interjection of the narrator and the inclusion of a child:
Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abrahamโs bosom all the year;
And worshippโst at the Templeโs inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not
There is a possibility that the last section of the poem questions the need to overtly and obviously worship God as opposed to being naturally part of the โTempleโs inner shrineโ of the mind. The narrator also mentions a child and with the possibility that the childโs natural innocence and wonder being enough to worship God unknowingly, alone, as in the last line.
The narrator says โThy nature is not, therefore, less divineโ because the child is not as yet โuntouched by solemn thoughtโ. The innocence of the child is something which Wordsworth was ever interested in, indeed it was something which was central of much of Romantic poetry. Here, the child is excused from religious worship the nature of the child being enough to lie in โAbrahamโs bosom all the yearโ and Godโs grace.
It would be wrong to read this poem as being anti-religious in nature because clearly, that is not what the narrator of the poem is expressing, but rather that mankind cannot or shouldnโt impose their religious doctrines on others. The closure of the feeling of the nun within the opening lines adds to this argument. Religion, or even something higher than religion, for religion is manโs way to organise thought, is featured within the innocence of the child. In short, man cannot limit God or natureโs power or perhaps they are one and the same.
Whichever way this poem is read this piece offers the reader much to think on. It is also a good example of the fact that Wordsworth is much more than just a โpoet of natureโ as he is sometimes limited to. It is not only a thought-provoking piece as many of William Wordsworthโs poems are if the reader is prepared to dig a little deeper, but one which is beautifully and cleverly put together. โIt is a beauteous evening, calm and freeโ shows Wordsworthโs power as a sonnet writer, and ultimately as an outstanding and naturally gifted poet.
Themes
Sunset
Wordsworth praises the calmness of evening. He also likes the fact that it is free, a time of leisure. He compares sunset to worship. The image of the nun shows how sacred evening is. It is like a Temple, as he suggests later in the poem. It is a time when heaven touches the earth.
A father-daughter Relationship
The poem shows Wordsworthโs love for his daughter, Caroline. He repeats the word โdearโ and praises her natural quality: โThy nature is not, therefore, less divineโ. He suggests that in her innocent and natural state she is close to God.
The Beauty of Nature Reveals God
Wordsworth believes the sunset is so beautiful because heaven is present in the sky at this time. The force behind the sea is a โmighty Beingโ, or God. Gazing at a sunset is the same as being present in the Temple to adore God.
Children are connected to Nature
The poet states his child is no less divine than the sunset. She is part of nature and is in the โinner shrineโ, maybe without knowing it.
Poetic Devices/ Style
Form: Here Wordsworth uses the fourteen-line sonnet form with an eight-line octave followed by a six-line
sestet.
Rhyme: It follows the rhyme-scheme abbaabba in the octave. In the sestet, the rhyme scheme is cdeced. The rhyme scheme shows organisation and harmony. Wordsworth regarded nature as ordered and in harmony. The child is in harmony with nature.
Comparison: Wordsworth compares nature to Christian images: a โnunโ, โheavenโ.
Contrast: Wordsworth contrasts himself as a thinker with โsolemn thoughtsโ to the child who is intimately linked to nature, in โthe inner shrineโ.
Diction: When Wordsworth wrote this poem, he used language that was like everyday language. Now, two hundred years later, the words and especially the word order seem old fashioned: โThouโ, โbeauteousโ, โoโerโ, โwalkestโ, โliestโ. These words are from the bible too. This emphasises the religious aspect of nature.
Simile: โThe holy time is quiet as a Nunโ, โa sound like thunderโ.
Metaphor: โThou liest in Abrahamโs bosomโ.
Tone: There is a serious and respectful tone throughout: โThe holy time etc.โ, โsolemn thoughtโ, โGod being with theeโ. The tone is also affectionate: โDearโ. The tone is gentle throughout the poem.
Atmosphere: Mysterious and sacred: โListen the mighty Being is awakeโ.
Assonance [vowel only repetition]: Note the โiโ sound repeated in โIs sinking down in its tranquillityโ. Assonance is used in this poem to create a musical backdrop to the description.
Consonance: Note the repeated โbโ sound that links the word โbeauteousโ with many other words used in the poem.