‘Idiot Boy, The’
‘Idiot Boy, The’,a ballad by Wordsworth , first published in Lyrical Ballads ( 1798 ). One of the most characteristic and controversial of the poet's early works, it takes as hero the idiot son of a poor countrywoman, Betty Foy, who is sent off on horseback by night to fetch the doctor for a sick neighbour. He is so long gone that his mother sets out to seek him, and finds him at last by a waterfall, whither the pony has wandered freely through the moonlight, to the boy's delight. The neighbour recovers and sets out to meet mother and son, and all three are happily reunited; the boy's description of his adventures,
‘The cocks did crow to-whoo, to-whoo,fittingly illustrate Wordsworth's intention of ‘giving the charm of novelty to things of everyday’. Wordsworth ably defended his choice of subject matter (which offended many) in a letter to John Wilson ,...
And the sun did shine so cold’,
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