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B. WORDSWORTH

- V.S. NAIPAUL (1932-2018)

INTRODUCTION TO THE STORY

‘B. Wordsworth’ is a short story published in V.S. Naipaul’s collection of short stories.
Miguel Street, in 1959. The story tells about a failed poet and his friend (a boy). B.
Wordsworth deals with the boy out of love and affection. He tells the boy about his own
love story. He is able to hold the attention of readers as well as Sonny, the boy, throughout
the story. He says he is working at a great poem. At the time of death, he tells the boy
some unexpected reality. Here, the boy gets a shock and the story also takes another
turn.

MAIN POINTS

• Beggars and rogues are regular visitors to the narrator’s home.

• One day, the narrator, who is a boy, met with a well-dressed man speaking
impeccable English.
• After the mother’s permission, the man and the boy watched the bees together for
an hour.
• The man, introduced himself as a poet who wanted to sell his poetry.
• Once B. Wordsworth took the boy to his house for eating mangoes from his yard
and it turned into friendship.
• When the narrator’s mom had beaten him, the boy went back to B. Wordsworth.
• They lay on the grass and observed the sky and the stars.
• One day, B. Wordsworth told a story about a poet and a girl poet.
• Both the friends loved each other’s company and even shared the secrets of their
lives.
• Wordsworth told him about a poem he was writing based on humanity.
• On his death-bed, B. Wordsworth told the boy that the poem and the story of lovers
were lies.
• The boy was shocked and ran back to his home not to come back as promised by
him to B. Wordsworth.
• A year later, he came back to know that B. Wordsworth’s house had been replaced
by a big-storeyed building.
• It was just as though B. Wordsworth had never existed.

P.T.O.

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 SUMMARY

‘B. Wordsworth’ is a short story written by V.S. Naipaul in 1959. The narrator tells the
story of his relationship with a poet named B. Wordsworth, when he (narrator) was a little
boy.

The story starts with the description of beggars visiting houses trying to earn some money
or alms in the kind house of Miguel Street. A tidily dressed man knocks on a house where
our little narrator lives with his mother. When the narrator asks the reason, the man replies
that he wants to see the bees in their compound.

The narrator runs upstairs and tells his mother that a man wants to see the bees. His
mother comes and asks the man in an unfriendly manner about what he actually wants.
The man again says that he wants to see the bees. The man’s English is so good that
the mother suspects him, nevertheless, she agrees to let him in the yard.

The boy (narrator) and the man watch the bees together. The man says that he likes
watching the bees and asks the boy if he likes it as well. The boy replies that he doesn’t
have the time to. The man shakes his head sadly and says that’s what he does; he
watches. The boy, quizzical about the peculiar man, asks various questions. The man
introduces himself as Black Wordsworth. He then says that he can watch a flower, like
the morning glory and cry.

The boy asks what he cries for and B. Wordsworth replies, “When you’re a poet you can
cry for everything.” After this, Wordsworth asks the child if he likes his mother. The child
says only when she’s not beating him. Wordsworth pulls out a printed paper from his
pocket. He tells the boy that on this paper the greatest poem about mothers is written and
he’d sell it to him for 4 cents if he likes. The boy rushed up to his mother to ask if she’d
buy it but his mother declines. The boy goes back to the man and tells him that his mother
doesn’t have four cents.

Wordsworth isn’t bothered by this. The boy asks why he goes around like this and whether
he is able to earn enough this way. Wordsworth says that this way he meets new people.
He also expects to meet new poets. But not a single copy has been sold till now. After
Wordsworth leaves, the boy wishes that they meet again.

After one week, while the boy is returning from school, they run into each other.
Wordsworth admits that he too was hoping to see him again. He tells the boy that he has
the best mango trees in his yard and wants to invite him to eat them. He lives in Alberto
Street in a one-room hut. After the boy has had enough mangoes, he returns home. His
mother goes berserk upon seeing his shirt stained with yellow juice.

P.T.O.

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His mother beats him badly that day. In anger the boy leaves home, screaming he’ll never
come back. He goes to Wordsworth’s place. Seeing the boy’s bleeding nose. Wordsworth
consoles him and suggests that if he stops crying, they will go for a walk. They go for a
walk down to Savannah and walk to the race-course. They lie on the green grass.
Wordsworth asks the boy to look up at the stars and think how far they are from them.
The boy does so. Never in his life had he felt so great! After this, some light flashes on
their faces; a policeman comes up to them, asking what they were doing. Wordsworth
replies that he has been asking the same question to himself for 40 years.

Wordsworth makes the boy promise that he’d never tell anyone about him or the mango
trees. The boy keeps his promise.

One day the boy goes to meet B. Wordsworth and sees him lying on his sofa, severely ill.
Death is written clear on his face. Heartbroken, the boy goes up to him. Wordsworth sits
up, placing the boy on his knees, and says that he is going to tell a joke. Then B.
Wordsworth says that everything he has ever told the boy about himself was a lie. He
also makes the boy promise that he’ll never come back again. Then the boy leaves.

After one year, while the boy was crossing the same street, there was no sign of
Wordsworth’s one-room but or his trees. It was as if Wordsworth had never existed.

TITLE

The title of the story is apt and attention seeking. B. Wordsworth catches every eye as he
is an escapist and shows closeness to nature. He values the things that surrounded him
and makes the young boy feel like the great poet. Since, the story is all about B.
Wordsworth and his life-style is an inspiration to the young boy though he was a failed
poet, the title is appropriate.

SETTING

The story is set in Trinidad at Miguel Street during the Great Depression in contemporary
post colonial times. In Trinidad, the Caribbean people lived with the whites who once rules
them. They speak broken English and live in beautiful surroundings. Though they live in
and around the naturally beautiful sights yet nobody has time to praise, observe and
admire because it was a time of economic hardships. People care more about their own
well-being.

P.T.O.
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CHARACTERIZAITON

B. Wordsworth

• Physical Appearance
• Creative and intellectually curious

The Boy Narrator

• Inquisitive
• Very Sensitive and Sentimental
• Compatible and Hospitable
• Keen Observer

The Boy’s Mother

• A Specimen of The Post Colonial Trinidad

• Strict and Suspicious
• Harsh and Heartless

THEMES

• Uncommon Close Relationship

• Creativity and Realization of Self-Existence
• Escapism
• Beauty in Nature and its appreciation
• Identity Crisis
• Alienation and Solitude

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