It is a Beauteous Evening
Walking with his ten-year-old daughter on the beach at Calais, Wordsworth considers the energy of God moving in all things.
1802
King George III 1760-1820
Walking with his ten-year-old daughter on the beach at Calais, Wordsworth considers the energy of God moving in all things.
1802
King George III 1760-1820
In 1792, a young William Wordsworth visited France and met Annette Vallon. The lovers had a daughter, Caroline, but were sundered when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain. Shortly before William married Mary Hutchinson in October 1802, with her encouragement William seized the opportunity of the Peace of Amiens to visit Calais for a seaside walk with his little daughter.
IT is a beauteous Evening,
calm and free;
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity;
The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea:*
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.*
Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear’st untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest ‘in Abraham’s bosom’ all the year;*
And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,*
God being with thee when we know it not.
As the Spirit of God ‘moved upon the face of the waters’ in Genesis 1:2.
The thunder of the surf. See also Revelation 14:2.
A reference to the Parable of Dives and Lazarus, in Luke 16:19-31: ‘And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.’ Wordsworth means that in their simplicity and innocence, children live in the courts of heaven at all times, even if they do not know it, or do not appear to think seriously. See also Matthew 18:10.
The Temple here is the body, which according to St Paul is the temple of the Holy Spirit. See 1 Corinthians 6:19. The idea that the invisible energies of God may be found suffusing Nature and dwelling in the Temple of the heart was a theme to which the poet returned again and again: see also The Rainbow, written just a few months earlier. Theologically, his instincts are highly sophisticated, far beyond the custom of his day to see Christianity in terms of moral restraint, or political and social activism.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.