Summary of “B. Wordsworth by V.S .Naipaul”

Summary of “B. Wordsworth by V.S .Naipaul”

''B. Wordsworth'' is a story of a tragic character narrated from the point of view of an innocent but keenly observant and inquisitive boy  who lives on Miguel street. It is set in post colonial Trinidad, Port of Spain during the Great Depression, at a time when the country was experiencing the great economic crisis. The story opens with the description of some beggars who religiously paid a visit to the compassionate and hospitable homes of Miguel street. Sometimes a rogue demanding to be fed or lighted a cigarette also paid visit. People were generous enough to meet his requirements. However, such beggars were rare. But, one day  “the strangest caller” called at about four o’clock after the narrator had returned from school and was dressed in his “home clothes.”The narrator addressed him “Sonny” and sought permission from him to enter his yard. He expressed his ardent desire to watch the bees that haunted the  “four small gru-gru palm trees.” The man was  a small man, dressed in neat clothes. “He wore a hat, white shirt and black trousers .He spoke impeccable and flawless English.

The boy asked his mother who reluctantly gave her consent but asked the boy to keep watch as she looked up at him with worried suspicion. The man and the boy watched the bees for an hour, squatting near the palm trees. The man asked the boy a number of questions regarding his interests-whether he liked watching bees, or if he had watched ants and scorpions and centipedes and congorees. The boy gave him the typical answer, common to the  modern lifestyle that has no leisure to derive bliss and happiness from the tranquilizing objects of nature.
 The boy, who is quizzical and inquisitive asks a barrage of questions about Wordsworth's life, like what the 'B' in his name stands for, and what B. does for a living.

It's at this point that we begin to learn B. Wordsworth’s  poetic, and possibly fantastical, view on life. He tells the boy that B. stands for 'Black', and that he had a brother, 'White,' with whom he shared a heart. He could also see a flower and cry like him. He says that he is one of the greatest poets of all time, yet he has never sold a poem. His effort to sell a poem to the boy's mother was snubbed at by the small minded, intolerant mother  who was too busy settling the necessities that she hardly had time for life’s delicacies. Before leaving, the man kindled in him a fiery passion with his prophetic prediction, that the boy was as good a poet as he was.

The man left and the boy longed to see him again. The boy did not have to wait too long. Returning from school, one afternoon, he spotted B. Wordsworth at the corner of  Miguel Street a week later. B. Wordsworth invited him to his house, a one roomed hut in the centre of a yard in Alberto Street.  The boy grew fond of Wordsworth and the two became close friends. The yard was all green and there were a mango tree, a coconut and a palm tree. It was not spruced or done up, The place looked wild and there was no concrete establishment nearby. The boy tasted the mangoes that were ripe and sweet and juicy as promised by. B. Wordsworth. The mangoes were so delicious and juicy that he could not stop himself from eating six of them. The juice trickled down his arms to elbows and down his chin to hi shirt that was stained. His mother got exasperated and furious at his wayward grown up ways. This earned him a good spanking at home. He was angry and his nose bled.

He left the house with a will never to return and tried to derive solace from his new friend B. Wordsworth. Wordsworth took the inconsolable boy for a walk. They lay on the grass and watched the stars. Wordsworth introduced the boy to the unknown realms of stars and familiarized him with the constellation of Orion, the Hunter which the narrator remembers even today. Suddenly, the boy felt he was big and great as he had never felt before.  The experiment outdoors furnishes us with a greater understanding of the world. For example, in the story, when the boy was looking at the stars, he started to understand more about who he is, as a person and what his purpose in life is. B. Wordsworth’s pondering remark that he had been asking the same question-what he had been doing here for the last forty years, is a statement on the insignificant life he had been leading.

He forgot his anger and pain and whip lashes, reminding us of the healing power of Nature. As their relationship continued, B. Wordsworth and the boy spend their time together walking, talking, meandering and wandering about around the seaboard, the Savannah, the race course, Botanical Gardens, Rock Gardens and the Chancellor Hill watching with a renewed zest and interest, the Port of Spain gradually enveloping in darkness and the lights illuminating the city and the ships in the harbor; living as poets and explorers and interpreters of life.

One day, when the boy was in Wordsworth's house, he inquired about the wild bushes in his yard that keep the place damp. He shared a story with the boy, of two poets who were married and how the girl and the unborn baby poet died due to some pregnancy complications. The girl loved the luxuriant green and therefore her husband  let the green lush continue in love of his wife and never touched the garden again and it “grew high and wild.” He didn't understand the story at first, but as Wordsworth's health deteriorated, he understood it more and more. The boy's world became a more exciting place with Wordsworth in it. He began looking at life with the keen and observant eyes of a poet.

Later on, the two had a conversation about B. Wordsworth's poetry writing skill while on a dock at the beach. B. Wordsworth confided to the narrator another secret, this one about a poem. This was not an ordinary poem, like the type of poems he had tried to sell for four cents, but “the greatest poem in the world.'' He had been working on it for five years and expected to complete the masterpiece in twenty two years if he worked at the same pace, writing one good  line, a month. He planned to write a magnificent poem that would address humanity The previous month's line: ''The past is deep.'' spell bound the boy to the extent that he craved for more.

The boy tried to inquire about the developments and about any new lines that he wrote but the poet chose not to respond and maintained silence The boy, however remains optimistic and enthusiastic about  B. Wordsworth's poetry and his poetry business, harboring a thought that , one day his poem would surely fetch him a handsome amount and he “will be the richest man in the world.” B. Wordsworth showed no excitement or enthusiasm. The narrator expressed his concern when the poet explained that his earnings from Calypso singing last him the whole year through. As he began to understand where B. Wordsworth came from and what he had lived through, he seemed like a new person to him."He did everything as though he were doing it for the first time in his life." He lived every moment with joy and pleasure, because he knew that at any moment, it could be his last.

One day, the boy went to meet him in his little house. The boy felt like crying at the pitiable condition of the poet. It seemed the pains of life and his powerlessness to change his destiny had made him enervated and old. He said that his poem was not doing well. The narrator saw Death writ large on his shriveled and shrunken face. B. Wordsworth noticed that the boy had noticed the approaching death and was happy that  he had developed a poet’s eye. In this last meeting,  B. Wordsworth makes the boy promise not to visit him again. In this last meeting, he asks if the boy wants to hear a funny story. The story, not-so-funny after all, is that B. had lied about the girl poet and the baby. He had also lied about writing the greatest poem. And with that, he send the boy on his way.

B. Wordsworth is very fond of the boy. He loves to be in his company. When he meets him the second time, he shows the eagerness of long lost friends. He invites him to his place. He said, "In my yard I have the best mango tree in Port of Spain. And now the mangoes are ripe and red and very sweet and juicy. I have waited here for you to tell you this and to invite you to come and eat some of my mangoes." Even when he is on the brink of death, he does not want him to carry sad memories about the poet and his unrealized dreams and quashed aspirations.  

The boy was left with a great memory of a great poet and  great observer of Nature and life who had taught him to view life as something new, unexplored and worth experimenting. He asked the boy, "Isn't that the funniest thing you've ever hear." His voice broke and the boy knew that it was not funny. It was not a lie. It was the stark truth that he lived with and died of. He ran home sobbing. He had joined the puzzle bits together and understood the whole story, after all, he had developed the heart and eye of a poet. He never saw or heard of Wordsworth again. A year later, as he walked along Alberto Street, he saw no sign of Wordsworth's old house. It had been demolished and a large two-storied concrete  building stood in its place. His trees had been cut down and bricks littered the foundation. "It was just as though B. Wordsworth had never existed."People’s love for concrete had made them devour the resplendent Nature. ”The Mango tree and the plum tree and the coconut tree had all been cut down.”