Summary of story
b.Wordsworth.Written by v.S naipaul
Answers
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.
Wordsworth isn’t bothered by this. The kid 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 kid 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 kid 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 kid has had enough mangoes, he returns home. His mother goes berserk upon seeing his shirt stained with yellow juice.
His mother beats him badly that day. In anger the kid 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 walks to the race-course. They lie on the green grass. Wordsworth asks the kid to look up at the stars and think how far they are from them. The kid does so. Never in his life had he felt so great yet nothing. After this, some light flashes on their faces; a policeman comes up to them, asking what they are doing. Wordsworth replies that he has been asking the same question to himself for 40 years.
Wordsworth makes the kid 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 kid promise that he’ll never come back again. Then the kid leaves.
After one year, while the boy was crossing the same street, there was no sign of Wordsworth’s one-room hut or his trees. It was as if Wordsworth had never existed.
Answer:
Psalm of life is the poem written by v.snaipaul Wordsworth.