B. Wordsworth – Summary & Analysis
The Storyline / Plot Summary
"B. Wordsworth" is a beautiful short story about a special friendship between a young boy and an unusual elderly man named Black Wordsworth. The story takes place in Port of Spain, Trinidad, during the 1940s, when the island was still under British rule. The narrator tells this story as an adult, looking back on a life-changing friendship from his childhood.
The story begins when B. Wordsworth comes to the boy's house one afternoon and asks the boy's mother for permission to watch the bees living in the palm trees in their yard. The boy is surprised because most people who come to the house ask for money or food. Instead, this man simply wants to watch the bees. B. Wordsworth speaks in polished, proper English—very different from the way the boy and his mother talk. He introduces himself as Black Wordsworth and claims to be the brother of the famous English poet William Wordsworth. He even tries to sell them a poem, but the boy's mother refuses.
A week later, the boy meets B. Wordsworth again, and this time the man invites him to his home to eat mangoes. The boy is excited and goes with him. He finds B. Wordsworth living in a small one-room hut surrounded by beautiful fruit trees—mango trees, coconut trees, and plum trees. The whole yard looks wild and overgrown, like a little piece of nature in the middle of the city. When the boy returns home late, his mother beats him, but he doesn't care. He has made a new friend.
The boy and B. Wordsworth spend many days together. One special evening, they lie on the grass and look up at the stars. B. Wordsworth tells the boy to think about how far away the stars are. The boy feels something amazing at that moment. He feels like nothing compared to the huge universe, but at the same time, he feels bigger and greater than ever before in his life. He forgets all his anger, all his tears, and all the pain from his difficult home life.
The boy asks B. Wordsworth why he keeps his yard so wild and messy. B. Wordsworth tells him a touching story. He says there was once a boy poet and a girl poet who fell in love and got married. They were both poets who loved words and nature. The girl poet got pregnant, but sadly, she died while having the baby. The baby never got to be born. To keep the memory of his wife and unborn child alive, the boy poet kept his garden wild and let the trees grow freely. B. Wordsworth's sad, overgrown yard is how he remembers them.
B. Wordsworth also tells the boy that he is working on an important project—writing the greatest poem in the world. He is writing just one line every month, and he shows the boy one line: "The past is deep." The boy thinks this is wonderful, and he imagines B. Wordsworth's great poem.
The boy and B. Wordsworth become close friends. They walk around the town together, and B. Wordsworth teaches the boy to see the world with wonder. When they walk by water, the boy asks B. Wordsworth if a pin will float if he drops it in. B. Wordsworth says, "This is a strange world. Drop your pin, and let us see what happens." The pin sinks, but the important thing is that B. Wordsworth helps the boy stay curious about everything around him.
However, sad times come. One day, the boy notices that B. Wordsworth looks old and sick. When he visits him, he can see that B. Wordsworth is dying. B. Wordsworth says something surprising: the story about the boy poet and girl poet is not true. He made it up. And the "greatest poem in the world"? That is not true either. He just made it all up. B. Wordsworth tells the boy to go away and never come back. The boy runs home crying, but now he cries "like a poet, for everything I saw."
A year later, the boy walks past where B. Wordsworth used to live. He is shocked to find that the little hut is gone. The beautiful trees are cut down. There is only brick and concrete where B. Wordsworth's magical garden used to be. The boy wonders: Did B. Wordsworth ever really exist?
The story is sad but also hopeful. Even though B. Wordsworth's house is gone and his stories were made up, the boy learned something real from him. B. Wordsworth taught the boy how to be a poet—not by writing poems, but by looking at the world with love, wonder, and deep feeling.
Publication
"B. Wordsworth" was written by V.S. Naipaul, a famous writer who was born in Trinidad in 1932. His grandparents came to Trinidad from India. Naipaul wrote this story in 1955, while living in London, and it was published in 1959 as part of a collection of short stories called "Miguel Street."
"Miguel Street" is a special book because all the stories are connected. They all tell the story of a young boy growing up on a street called Miguel Street in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Each story introduces a different person who lives on the street. The stories are told by the boy, and they show what life was like in Trinidad when it was still a British colony.
"B. Wordsworth" is the most famous story in this collection. The book became very popular and helped make Naipaul famous as a writer. Later, Naipaul won many prizes for his writing, and in 2001, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. "Miguel Street" was Naipaul's first book, even though it was not the first one published.
Context
The story takes place during the 1940s in Port of Spain, a city in Trinidad. At that time, Trinidad was ruled by Great Britain. Trinidad had a long history of being a colony, first ruled by Spain and then by Great Britain for almost two hundred years.
When the story takes place, most people in Trinidad are poor. This is because for many years, powerful countries took the island's natural riches and used people as slaves. By the 1940s, though slavery had ended, the people were still struggling to live a better life.
Miguel Street, where the story happens, is a rundown street in a poor part of the city. Regular beggars come to people's homes asking for help. The place is crowded and difficult. Many people feel hopeless about the future.
B. Wordsworth seems different from everyone else. He speaks like an educated British person and cares about nature and poetry, not money or survival. This makes him stand out on a street where most people are just trying to get by. His presence brings something special and magical to a very ordinary, difficult place.
Setting
The setting of "B. Wordsworth" is Port of Spain, Trinidad, during the 1940s. The city is described as a poor, urban area with rundown streets and concrete buildings. This is the background for most of the story.
However, the most important setting is B. Wordsworth's yard and home. His place is very different from the rest of the city. While everything around him is made of concrete and brick, B. Wordsworth's yard is wild and full of nature. There is a small one-room hut in the middle of the yard, surrounded by fruit trees—mango trees, coconut trees, and plum trees. The grass is overgrown, and everything looks natural and free.
B. Wordsworth's yard is like a magical garden inside the city. It represents nature, beauty, freedom, and poetry in a place that has little of these things. When the boy visits the yard, he feels like he is in a different world, far away from the dirty city streets.
At the end of the story, this magical place is destroyed. The beautiful yard is torn down, and in its place, there is only brick and concrete. This shows how the modern city destroys nature and beauty.
Title
The title "B. Wordsworth" is short and simple, but it has deep meaning. The "B" stands for "Black," which is the first name B. Wordsworth uses when he meets the boy. The name is a reference to William Wordsworth, a famous British poet who lived two hundred years ago.
William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who loved nature and believed that nature could teach us important truths about life. He wrote many beautiful poems about flowers, trees, mountains, and the natural world. B. Wordsworth says he is the "Black" brother of "White" Wordsworth—meaning he is the opposite and the same at the same time.
The title tells us that the story is about this special character and his ideas. It suggests that the story is about poetry, nature, and how we see the world. The name is also unusual and mysterious, which matches the strange and magical quality of the character himself.
By using "Wordsworth" in the title, Naipaul connects his story to the ideas of the famous poet. Both the real William Wordsworth and the made-up B. Wordsworth believe that poetry is about feeling, wondering, and loving nature. The title prepares us for a story about a poetic way of seeing the world.
Narrative and Language
"B. Wordsworth" is told from the first-person point of view. The narrator is an adult man who is looking back on his childhood friendship with B. Wordsworth. He tells the story in his own voice, remembering what happened many years ago.
The language in the story shows two different styles of speech. The boy and his mother speak in the common dialect of Trinidad—casual, simple words that regular people use. However, when B. Wordsworth speaks, his language is very different. He uses formal, polished, educated English. He speaks slowly and carefully, and uses phrases like "You have done a good deed today." This difference in language shows that B. Wordsworth is different from everyone else. It also shows that he is educated and cultured.
Naipaul uses beautiful, simple language to describe the story. He does not use difficult words or confusing sentences. The story feels like someone is telling it to you personally, like a friend sharing a memory.
The narrative style is special because the adult narrator remembers things from the child's perspective. We see the world through the boy's eyes—his wonder, his confusion, and his growing understanding. Yet we also hear the voice of the adult looking back and thinking about what really happened. This creates a mix of innocence and wisdom that makes the story powerful and touching.
Themes
1. Creating Your Own Identity
B. Wordsworth is not his real name, and he did not really write a poem or have a wife who died. Instead, B. Wordsworth invented who he wanted to be. He chose to call himself "Black Wordsworth" to connect himself with ideas of poetry and nature. He created a life story and a purpose for himself, even if these things were not completely true.
This teaches us an important lesson: we can choose who we want to become. Even if life is difficult and we do not have much money or power, we can still create meaning and beauty in our lives through how we think and what we believe. B. Wordsworth shows that identity is not something we are born with—it is something we can create and choose for ourselves.
2. Art and How Artists Live
The story shows that being an artist or poet is not just about writing poems or making things. It is about how you see the world and how you live your life. B. Wordsworth claims to write poetry, but he hardly writes anything. What makes him a real poet is the way he looks at stars, watches bees, and finds beauty in nature.
Real poetry, the story suggests, is about feeling deeply, noticing small things, and loving the world around you. B. Wordsworth teaches the boy to cry when looking at flowers, to wonder at the stars, and to find magic in ordinary things. This is true poetry—not fancy words on paper, but a way of living with passion and amazement.
3. Friendship Beyond Differences
The boy and B. Wordsworth are very different. B. Wordsworth is old and the boy is young. B. Wordsworth speaks like an educated British gentleman, while the boy speaks in the common Trinidadian dialect. B. Wordsworth seems to be poor and alone, while the boy comes from a normal family (even if his mother is harsh).
Yet they become real friends. They like each other and care about each other. Their friendship shows that real friendship is not based on being the same or having things in common. True friendship comes from understanding each other, caring about each other, and sharing experiences together. The story suggests that the most beautiful friendships can happen between people who seem to have nothing in common.
4. The Wonder of Nature
B. Wordsworth loves nature. He wants to watch bees, eat mangoes from his trees, and look at stars. He teaches the boy to see the natural world as magical and full of wonder. When they lie on the grass and look up at the stars, the boy feels changed. He realizes how big the universe is, and at the same time, how special and important he is.
Nature in the story is not just scenery. It is alive and important. Nature connects us to bigger ideas, teaches us about life, and helps us feel feelings we did not know we had. B. Wordsworth's garden is the most beautiful place in the story, showing that nature is more important than money or power.
5. Life and Death
The story mixes together happiness and sadness, life and death. B. Wordsworth teaches the boy to feel joy and wonder, but we also learn that B. Wordsworth is dying. The boy cries when he learns that B. Wordsworth's stories were not true and when he sees that B. Wordsworth is sick.
This shows that life includes both joy and pain, beginning and ending. The boy experiences deep sadness, but the sadness makes him feel like a real poet. He cries "for everything I saw"—not just for his friend, but for all the beauty and sadness in the world. The story teaches that death is real and sad, but the beauty of life and friendship makes the sadness meaningful.
Symbols
Trees
The trees in the story represent life, beauty, creativity, and memory. B. Wordsworth's yard has many different trees—mango, coconut, and plum trees. These trees give fruit and shade. They are alive and growing.
The trees represent B. Wordsworth himself and what he teaches the boy. Just as trees give food and beauty, B. Wordsworth gives the boy wonder, love, and a new way to see the world. When B. Wordsworth tells the boy that he keeps his garden wild to remember his dead wife and child, the trees become a symbol of memory and love that continues after death.
At the end of the story, the trees are cut down, and concrete replaces them. This represents how modern life destroys nature and beauty. It also shows how B. Wordsworth and his magic are gone. The loss of the trees makes the boy wonder if B. Wordsworth ever really existed.
The Stars
The stars in the sky represent mystery, wonder, vastness, and the unknown. When B. Wordsworth and the boy lie on the grass and look up at the stars, something magical happens. The boy feels small compared to the huge universe, but at the same time, he feels larger and greater than before.
The stars teach the boy that there are big things in the world beyond his small, difficult life. They show that the world is full of mystery and beauty. Looking at the stars changes how the boy thinks about himself and his place in the universe.
The stars also represent the moment when the boy becomes like a poet. He learns to wonder at the world, just like B. Wordsworth. The stars are a symbol of B. Wordsworth's teaching—how to see the world with amazement and love.
The Pin
The pin that the boy drops in the water represents curiosity, experimentation, and trying to understand the world. When the boy asks B. Wordsworth if a pin will float, B. Wordsworth says, "This is a strange world. Drop your pin, and let us see what happens."
The pin sinks, but that is not the important part. What matters is that the boy is learning to ask questions about the world and to try things to find answers. B. Wordsworth is teaching him to be curious and to explore.
The pin also represents how B. Wordsworth and the boy explore the world together through their friendship. They wonder about small things and big things. The pin reminds us that even small, ordinary things in life can be interesting and mysterious.
The Hut and Yard
B. Wordsworth's small hut and wild yard represent a place of safety, beauty, and freedom. The hut is simple and poor, with just one room. But surrounded by trees and plants, it is like a magical world. This place is different from everything else in the poor city streets around it.
The yard represents B. Wordsworth's values—his love of nature, his rejection of money and material things, and his choice to live simply and poetically. The yard is where the boy learns his most important lessons. It is where he feels safe with his friend.
When the yard is destroyed and replaced with brick and concrete, it symbolizes the loss of beauty, nature, and poetry in the modern world. It also shows how B. Wordsworth and his lessons have disappeared from the boy's life. The destruction of the yard leaves the boy wondering if his special friend was ever real.
Critical Commentary
"B. Wordsworth" is a touching story about friendship, wonder, and learning to see the world with fresh eyes. It’s a coming-of-age story written in first person from the young boy’s perspective depicting his growth from young age to adulthood. Through the friendship between a young boy and an unusual elderly poet, the story teaches us important lessons about life.
The most important message of the story is that poetry and beauty are not just about fancy words or fancy things. Real poetry is a way of seeing the world and living life. It is about noticing small things like bees and flowers, feeling deep emotions, and wondering at the stars above us. B. Wordsworth is a poet not because he writes perfect poems, but because he teaches the boy to feel and see with love and amazement.
The story also shows us that people can create who they want to be, even if they are poor or alone. B. Wordsworth invents an identity for himself as a poet, and through this identity, he brings beauty and meaning to his life and the life of the boy. His made-up stories about a dead wife and a great poem may not be true, but they represent something real—his love of life and nature.
Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that B. Wordsworth dies and his magical garden is destroyed. This shows that beautiful things do not last forever. But the story is also hopeful because the boy will carry his memories of B. Wordsworth with him always. Even after B. Wordsworth is gone and his house is destroyed, the boy can never forget what he learned. The boy becomes a writer and tells this story, so now everyone can know about B. Wordsworth and what he taught.
In the end, "B. Wordsworth" is a story about how one person's love of life can change another person's life forever. It shows that even small moments of wonder and friendship can be the most important things in our lives. The story reminds us to look at the world with the eyes of a poet—with wonder, love, and deep feeling.