“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Introduction

• Read the full text of “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Summary

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Themes

• 

  The Holiness of Nature

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  Childhood and Faith

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”

• Lines 1-4

  It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
  The holy time is quiet as a Nun
  Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
  Is sinking down in its tranquility;

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 5-8

  The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea;
  Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
  And doth with his eternal motion make
  A sound like thunder—everlastingly.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 9-11

  Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
  Thy nature is not therefore less divine:

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 12-14

  Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
  And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
  God being with thee when we know it not.

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Personification

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Simile

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Beauteous
• Holy time
• Adoration
• Tranquility
• Broods o'er
• O'er
• The mighty Being
• Doth
• Everlastingly
• Walkest
• Thou
• Thy
• Therefore
• Liest
• Abraham's bosom
• Worshipp'st
• The Temple
• Thee

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Speaker

“It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free”

More “It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” Resources

• External Resources

  • Wordsworth's Life and Work — Read a biography of the poet at the Poetry Foundation.

  • More on the Romantics — Check out the Poetry Foundation's "Introduction to British Romanticism," the movement with which Wordsworth is closely associated.

  • Poems, in Two Volumes (Vol. I) — Read the poem in its original context: the 1807 volume in which it was first published.

  • The Romantics and Nature — Watch a BBC documentary on the British Romantics (including Wordsworth) and their relationship to the natural world.

  • The Poem Aloud — Watch British actor Benedict Cumberbatch read "It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free."

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Wordsworth

  • A Complaint

  • A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

  • Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

  • Expostulation and Reply

  • Extract from The Prelude (Boat Stealing)

  • I Travelled Among Unknown Men

  • I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

  • Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

  • Lines Written in Early Spring

  • London, 1802

  • Mutability

  • My Heart Leaps Up

  • Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room

  • Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

  • She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways

  • She was a Phantom of Delight

  • The Solitary Reaper

  • The Tables Turned

  • The World Is Too Much With Us

  • Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower

  • To a Snowdrop

  • We Are Seven