Great, Wide, Beautiful, Wonderful, World

William Brigty Rands 1823 – 1882

W. B. Rands wrote poems under false names like (Henry Holbeach). He

was very poor. Then he became a reporter in England. Finally, he wrote
successful poems and fairy tales for children.
He was a British writer and one of the major authors of nursery rhymes of
Victorian era.

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World

BY:- W.B. Rands

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,

With the wonderful water around you curled,
And the wonderful grass on your breast,
World, you are beautifully dresses.

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,

I tremble to think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper inside me seemed to say,
You are more than Earth, though you are such a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot !

Vocabulary:
Great: large, big
Wide: big
Curried: wrapped
Breast: heart
Tremble: shake
Dot: very small point
Whisper: - A soft voice.

Paraphrase:
The poet is amazed by the beauty of the world. He says that the world
is wonderful with beautiful seas and oceans. He sees the world's surface
as a person's breast. He says in the first verse that the world is
beautifully dressed.
He thinks of the world as it is big and great which makes him shake. He
realizes how small and unimportant man is in comparison. But he also
believes that man is much more important than the world, because man
can think and love, and the world can't. Man is the most important
thing in the world.

Paraphrase:-
The poet in this poem is an admirer of the world and its beauty. He
says that the world is so big, so great and beautiful. He believes that
the world is a fine place. The poet describes the fine world as a
person and as people are with a green covered in clothes such as
seas and oceans. The world is covered also with a green grass.

In the second part, the poet compares between himself and the
world. At the first he says that he is so small, if we compared him with
world. But while he was praying, he hears a whisper that comes
inside him and it tells him that, man is much more important than the
world because Man has something which doesn’t exist in the world,
because he can love and think but the world can not. So when God
creates us, he concerned more of the man.

Figures of speech:-
Personification on:-
“Grass on your breast.” The poet personifies nature as a beautiful
lady who is wearing a colourful dress.
“World you are beautifully dressed” The poet personifies nature
as a beautiful lady who is wearing a beautiful dress.
“ You can love and think” the poet personifies nature as a person who can
love and think.
Alliteration on:-
“Wide- wonderful – world” Repetition of “W”
“Tremble – think” Repetition of “ T”
Whisper inside me seemed to say” Repetition of the sound “s”
Consonance on:-
“beautiful _ wonderful” → “ ful”

Commentary:-
The poem consists of ten lines of verse. In the first five lines the poet
emphasizes the idea of the greatness and largeness of the world.

The poet personifies the world .He imagined it to be a person with a

human characteristics.

The rhyme scheme is quiet simple and traditional. (aa, bb, cc, dd,
ee). The poet doesn’t make use of lots of figures of speech in this
short poem. The language is simple and straight forward.

In the last two lines the poet, sums up his main idea; which is that
Man is the greatest thing on the earth. Here the last two lines are
much longer than the previous shorter ones and this makes a
contrast.