It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

Line 1 sets the scene that Wordsworth will elaborate on in the following lines of the poem’s first eight lines, or octave. The description of the beautiful calm evening is straightforward, and only the addition of another adjective, “free,” calls for some explication. In what sense can an evening be “free”? Wordsworth is using a poetic device known as a transferred epithet: The adjective “free” applies not to the evening but to the speaker, in whom the calm beauty of the evening inspires a feeling of freedom. The sentiment aligns with Wordsworth’s frequent suggestion that the human mind in quiet moments senses its deep kinship with nature, which creates the feeling of inner freedom. 

Line 2 introduces a religious or spiritual element, referring to the evening as “the holy time,” meaning that it is sacred, in some way linked to God, and endowed with divine qualities. This sense of holiness is reinforced by the simile of the “Nun / Breathless with adoration” (Lines 2-3), which suggests that the beauty of the evening is like a woman who has dedicated herself to religious life—its peace is the expression of God and therefore worthy of adoration or worship. 

Lines 3 and 4 are more purely descriptive, adding to the picture of the evening as sunset approaches.