Echoes
B. Wordsworth: Theme of Friendship
Question : Why do you think B. Wordsworth and the boy became friends ? Discuss the relationship shared by them.
Answer : In the short story B. Wordsworth, the main protagonist of the same name, was a poet who earned his living by singing calypsoes in the calypso season.
His creativity and intellectual curiosity alienated him from his neighbours, who were leading materialistic life. He had no adult friends. He used to spend his time by going around to sell his poetry, observing nature and hoping to meet poets.
On the other hand the narrator, was a young school – going boy, who was fatherless and taken care by his harsh and strict mother. He was often beaten and scolded by his mother for very small reasons.
They first met at the house of narrator in Miguel Street, where the man came to his home ” to watch the bees ” in his yard.
The boy was instantly impressed by the smart dressing of the man and his correct and good English. As he narrates –
“He spoke very slowly and very correctly, as though every word was costing him money”.
Their loneliness brought them close. The boy found in him – a friend , philosopher and guide and the man found a young budding poet in the boy. Soon they shared an affectionate bond.
Soon after their first meeting, the boy prayed to meet B. Wordsworth again. This incident initiated a friendship between them.
B. Wordsworth showered his love and kindness as he offered the boy to partake as many mangoes as he wanted, from his yard. When the boy was upset and angry with his mother for beating him badly , the man comforted him. He took the boy out for a walk. He became the boy’s sole friend and companion.
They became close friends. They started spending more time together. The man told him the story of a boy poet and a girl poet,who got married but the girl poet died and so did their unborn baby. B. Wordsworth seemed to be growing older as he narrated the story.
They used to go for long walks regularly, where they often engaged in philosophical conversations.
“The world became a most exciting place” for the young, fatherless boy.
B. Wordsworth told the boy about his aspiration of being a great poet and also about his secret that he was writing the world’s greatest poem.
B. Wordsworth grow old, the boy could see death on his shrinking face. The boy turned emotional, he had tears in his eyes. Wordsworth looked into his eyes and said
“Oh you can see it ,too. I always knew you had the poet’s eye.”
B. Wordsworth hugged him, and then he revealed that the story about the boy poet and girl poet was not real and also all his talk about poetry wasn’t true. He said to the boy
“All this talk about poetry and the greatest poem in the world, that wasn’t true either.”
The boy could not bear the sight of his friend dying, he left the house and ran home crying – “like a poet , for everything I saw.”
The boy missed him even after his death and thus walked along Alberto Street a year later but could find no trace of B. Wordsworth –
“It was just as though B. Wordsworth had never existed.”
This way they shared a divine relation where the man has given the boy the heart of a poet and weakened his senses to observe the world in a different way.