It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

If the octave, or the poem’s first eight lines, hints at the power of God, the "mighty Being” (Line 6) that underlies the beauty of nature, then the sestet, or the last six lines, offers a different motif. Focused on the little girl, it emphasizes divine tenderness, protection, and the unique privilege accorded to a child. The motif has two aspects. First, the child “liest in Abraham’s bosom” (Line 12). Abraham was the first Hebrew patriarch and has always been a revered figure in both Judaism and Christianity. The phrase is a figure of speech that refers to the notion that the righteous dead lie in a blessed state; it evolved from the custom of reclining on couches at mealtimes in such a way that one man’s head lay near the chest of another. In Christian thought, Abraham’s bosom came to be thought of not just as a temporary place before entry into heaven but as synonymous with heaven itself. Such is the good fortune of the child, simply by virtue of her existence. Second, the “inner shrine” at which the child worships was the innermost part of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in ancient times, referred to as the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest was allowed entry, and yet in this poem, the child worships there. She needs neither learning nor authority but only the “natural piety” that she inherently possesses (the phrase is from Wordsworth’s poem “My Heart Leaps Up”).