B. Wordsworth

“B. Wordsworth” is narrated by an unnamed boy. The use of the boy’s perspective frames the old poet as a strange and bewildering figure. As a youngster, the boy is not jaded by society. His mother is suspicious and cynical about the world, refusing to buy poems and beating the boy when he spills fruit juice on his shirt. From her perspective, Wordsworth is an eccentric who cannot be trusted. From her son’s perspective, however, the poet is the key to understanding the strangeness of a world. When they stare at the stars, for example, the boy realizes that something that has always been part of his life is infused with rich and mystical beauty. Wordsworth can reveal the wonders of the everyday world to the boy because he is not yet inured to the world around him.

The contrast is stark between the boy’s growing appreciation for the world and his mother’s cynicism. Though she is mentioned often, the boy’s father is not mentioned at all. He is either dead or absent, and the mother has been left to raise the boy by herself. She does not have time to think about the bees, the stars, or the overgrown garden at the poet’s house.