Wordsworth wrote this poem during an evening walk with his daughter Caroline. In the poem, he describes the beauty of the calm and peaceful evening by the sea. He sees the sunset as a holy, sacred time, comparing it to a nun in prayer. Wordsworth senses the power of nature but also sees the divinity in both nature and his daughter, as she walks with innocence close to nature, just as he believes children are closer to God. The poem expresses Wordsworth's view of nature as revealing the divine and his loving relationship with his daughter.

1. Group members
 Iqra Ijaz 105
 Anmol Bareeha 122
 Ayesha Nazar 125
 Tahira Nawaz 153

2. William Wordsworth
(Preacher Of Nature)
• April 7, 1770 – April 23, 1850

3. • As a young man, Wordsworth developed a
love of nature, a theme reflected in many
of his poems.
• He began to write poetry while he was at
school, but none was published until 1793.

4. • In 1797 he moved to Somerset, to live
near the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
who was an admirer of Wordsworth's
work.
• They collaborated on 'Lyrical Ballads',
published in 1798.
• The poems were greeted with hostility by
most critics.

5. • He continued to write poetry, but it was
never as great as his early works.
• In 1842, he was given a government
pension and the following year became
poet laureate. Wordsworth died on 23 April
1850.

6. Subject matter of poetry
• In his preface to the second edition of the
“Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth said that :
1. Poetry should deal with:
a. everyday situations and incidents.
b. ordinary people, especially humble rural
people.
c. homely (=simple) objects called by their
ordinary names.

7. • The reason for this choice is in the fact
that men are better when closer to
nature and far from the artificialities of
civilization.
• Wordsworth defines poetry as “the
spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings’’ and its origin is in “emotion
recollected in tranquility.’’

8. • In Lyrical Ballads,Wordsworth defines a
poet in the following lines:
• He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is
true, endowed with more lively sensibility,
more enthusiasm and tenderness, who
has a greater knowledge of human nature,
and a more comprehensive soul, than are
supposed to common among mankind.

9. The language of poetry
• The language should be:
familiar
simple
that of ordinary people
because humble, country people ....
• live in communion with the objects from
which language originates;
• express their feelings in a more immediate,
forceful and effective way.

10. Stages in Process of Poetic creation
• There are four stages in the process of poetic
creation.
1. Observation
2. Recollection
3. Contemplation
4. Imaginative Excitement

11. Main Themes
• Nature is seen by Wordsworth as:
The countryside as opposed to the town.
• Children and childhood
Childhood is when man is closest to God and
can perceive God in the natural beauty of the
world around him.

12. The Poetic Process

13. ‘It is a beauteous evening, calm and
Free’
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 tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods 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 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.

14. Background Information
• This poem is one of the many sonnets
Wordsworth wrote in the early 1800s.
• This is a Petrarchan sonnet.
• This poem is one of the most personal of all
of Wordsworth's writing, Shortly before
Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson
• octave follows a rhyme scheme of
ABBAABBA, and the sestet follows a rhyme
scheme of CDEDEC.

15. • This poem is thought to have originated
from a real moment in Wordsworth's life,
when he walked on the beach with the
daughter (Caroline) he had not known for
a decade. The main idea of “It Is a
Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” is
how Wordsworth views nature and
childhood as essentially divine.

16. Setting
• The time is evening and sun sinks down
on the horizon. The speaker and his
daughter are walking by the sea

17. It is a beauteous Evening, calm and
free . Fairly straightforward, worsdworth is
setting the scene as a beautiful evening.

18. The holy time is quiet as a Nun :
Sunset is a sacred or holy time in many of
Wordsworth’s poems. Wordsworth
compares the time of day to a holy nun
adoring God. And how time seems to
stand still in this calmness. The image of a
'nun' indicates how sacred the evening is.

19. Breathless with adoration; the broad
sun :
This suggests that nature possesses
underlying energy and power. And also
helps create the image of the perfect
sunset

20. Is sinking down in its tranquility:
Wordsworth is attempting to create the
picture in the mind of the reader of the
"perfect sunset", and emphasizing the
calmness.

21. The gentleness of heaven broods on the
Sea:
Wordsworth 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.

22. Listen! the mighty Being is awake:
may be interpreted as: God, nature, or God
manifested throughout nature, This "mighty
being" may be interpreted as: God, nature, or
God manifested throughout nature,
Wordsworth's ideas in this poem rotating
around divinity would back up this concept as
Divinity is most definitely evident in God.

23. And doth with his eternal motion make:
'Eternal motion' means it is constantly
changing and evolving.

24. A sound like thunder−everlastingly:
Wordsworth thinks that the motion of the
tides makes a sound like thunder on the
shore. Thunder is also a symbol of
strength and power, so here words worth
is expressing the eternal might of nature.

25. Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with
me here:
This is words worth's first
reference to the girl that
walks with him, his daughter
Caroline. The use of the word 'dear'
indicates his affection and care for her

26. If thou appear untouched by solemn
thought:
Here words worth tells that though she
appears untouched by the "solemn thought"
that he himself is gripped by, her nature is still
divine. He may have ‘solemn thoughts’ about
the sacredness of nature, but she is
intimately connected to nature. And so she is
closer to nature than him.

27. Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Wordsworth is showing how a Child’s
ignorance is their innocence.

28. Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the
year:
This line portrays the trust and innocence
of Caroline. Or suggesting that her soul is
blessed by God.

29. And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner
shrine:
The ‘Temple’ here represents stands for
Caroline’s (Words worth's daughter)
closeness to nature. She is in the ‘inner
shrine’ of the temple. Usually only special
people, the high priests, could enter the
inner shrine of a Jewish temple.

30. God being with thee when we know it
not:
Wordsworth is stating how God seems to
be with Caroline in her childish innocence
yet not with him or adults. The line above
this he suggests how she is intimately
connected to nature, because she is
'natural' she is connected to God also .

31. Analysis Of Poem
• The very fact of being in nature is powerful
enough to produce a religious experience.
• The divinity that has seen in nature is seen
in his daughter.
• The power of innocence is related to God
which is related to nature.

32. Themes In Poem
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.

33. A father-daughter Relationship
The poem shows Wordsworth’s love for
his daughter, Caroline. He repeats the
word ‘dear’ and praises her natural quality:
‘Thy nature is not therefore less divine’. He
suggests that in her innocent and natural
state she is close to God.

34.  The Beauty of Nature Reveals God
• Also that gazing at a sunset is the same as being
present in the Temple to adore God.
• Children are connected to Nature
• Wordsworth states his child is no less divine than
the sunset. She is part of nature and is in the
‘inner shrine’, maybe without knowing it.

35. Features of the Poem
o Wordsworth compares nature to Christian
images: a ‘nun’, ‘heaven’
o 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: ‘Thou’, ‘beauteous’, ‘o’er’, ‘liest’,
'walkest', 'thee'. These words are from the
bible too. This emphasises the religious
aspect of nature.

36. • Similes:
The Similes in the poem are
‘The holy time is quiet as a Nun’ and ‘a
sound like thunder’.
• Metaphor:
The lone metaphor in the poem is: ‘Thou
liest in Abraham’s bosom.’ Is 'the
gentleness of heaven broods on the sea' a
metaphor?.

37. THANK
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