Wordsworth’s lines reveal the sudden beauty a picnicker might encounter, which triggers pleasure and spiritual ease at an evening picnic:
Ah! That such beauty, varying in the light
Of living nature, cannot be portrayed
By words, nor by the pencil’s silent skill;
But is the property of him alone
Who hath beheld it, noted it with care,
And in his mind recorded it with love!
Elsewhere Wordsworth describes an evening visit to Lake Grasmere when a group comes to the lake shore and circles around a “gypsy-fire.” Curiously, he does not call this an evening picnic. His thought of change and decay tinges on the scene’s beauty. As the day ends, the picnickers dine and then listen to a young girl sing a “simple song.” When the sun sets, the natural beauty of the lake and mountains will be gone—Sic transit gloria mundi.
Featured Image: John Laporte. Grasmere (nd). British Museum
See William Wordsworth. “Book IX, “Discourse of the Wanderer, and an Evening Visit to the Lake.” In The Excursion. London, 1814.