It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

Wordsworth is known for his deep love and appreciation of nature, often expressed through depictions of the Lake District in England, but also of his experiences on his expeditions to the Continent. This sonnet is an example. It announces its subject right at the beginning—“a beauteous evening”—and the imagery that follows records the sights and sounds witnessed by one observer as he walks on the beach at Calais, although the location that inspired the poem is not directly named and could be almost anywhere. The nature imagery is simple and expansive: the “broad sun” (Line 3) and the approaching sunset; the sea and the sky (the latter described in a way that reflects the speaker’s beliefs as “the gentleness of heaven” [Line 5]). The speaker prefers this universal and broad description to exploring nature in granular detail or through some idiosyncratic or otherwise striking perception. Nevertheless, the speaker is a careful observer of his surroundings who records factual elements like the fact that sun appears larger as it sets than when it is overhead—this kind of attention is part of appreciating nature’s majesty. This is a scene that everyone can respond to. Nothing disturbs or spoils its beauty. Nature is showing its calm face; the sun, for example, is sinking down “in its tranquility” (Line 4).