Summary of B.Wordsworth
Answers
Explanation:
The Storyline / Plot 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 houses 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 but 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 kid if he likes it as well. The kid replies that he never has 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 kid asks what he cries for. 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 kid says only when she’s not beating him. Wordsworth pulls out a printed paper from his pocket. He tells the kid 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 kid rushes up to his mother to ask if she’d buy it but his mother declines. The kid goes back to the man and tells him that his mother doesn’t have four cents.