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Texas | Columns | "They shoe horses, don't they?"

CHILDHOOD EXPLORATIONS:
WORDSWORTH’S AND MINE

by Robert G. Cowser
After I asked the students in a literature survey class I was teaching to write a comparison of a few of their childhood experiences that compare or contrast with Wordsworth’s experiences as described in Book First of The Prelude, I began to reflect on a few of my own contacts with the natural world. I realized that there were significant differences between the experiences Wordsworth had as a nine-year-old and my own experiences outdoors.
As a boy, Wordsworth often wandered alone in the sparsely populated Lake District of England. Though during the summer I turned nine, I roamed about the sparsely populated area around Saltillo, where I grew up, I hardly ever went alone. My brother, who was three years younger, was almost always with me on these jaunts. Often we two joined three of the Baze children, whose family lived on the farm adjacent to our family farm.

Chloe Baze was my age, and her brother and sister were my brother’s age. As a group, we would leave our houses early on summer mornings, exploring the post oak woods near our houses . We lived at a time when consumers dumped their cans and bottles in ditches along the country roads. One fascination for us was searching for unusual medicine bottles or snuff bottles.
Sometimes we walked on the dusty roads only long enough to find a stream to follow into the woods. Usually barefoot, we risked injury to our feet when we waded in murky creeks. Wordsworth dipped into clear mountain streams. We never explored the area after sundown, though Wordsworth tells of several excursions into the darkness.

At the age of nine Wordsworth wandered over the Lake District area at night, occasionally taking a bird a hunter had trapped in a cage. He must have felt guilty after having done the deed because he tells of hearing “Low breathings coming after. . .” and “. . steps almost as silent as the turf they trod” as he ran through the darkness.

At least once my group committed a deed that gives a twinge to my conscience even now. Early one morning standing outside the front yard of the McGills, a family living near us, we decided to open the gate and go inside the yard. Clara McGill took pride in the flowers she grew; that morning many were in full bloom: poppies, zinnias, daisies, petunias, flox and other varieties. Each of us began to pick a few blossoms. Then we all ran away as fast as we could, slamming the gate behind us. We left simultaneously, as blackbirds fly in a flock when they are frightened. I cannot remember feeling the presence of a force chasing us as Wordsworth felt after having taken the bird from the trap. But today I feel a twinge of guilt because of our taking the flowers.

The summer heat in Texas discouraged us from traveling as far as Wordsworth often went, and parental restraint kept us from exploring at night.


© Robert G. Cowser
"They shoe horses, don't they?"
Guest Column, January 6, 2011
More Columns by Robert G. Cowser
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