Once more to the Lake by E.B. White (text Tow #17)

       A prominent writer of the famous New York Times, E.B. White produced many masterpieces under his pen, especially the renowned children’s book Charlotte’s Web. However, contrary to his amazing talents, E.B White himself is a very reclusive man, and Once more to the Lake characterizes his insular tendencies with brilliant narration.

       First published in 1941, Once more to the Lake is a peaceful description of a man’s nostalgia to a shimmering lake he visited often during his childhood. The essay emphasizes upon calmness, peacefulness, and memory unlike any other. There is no dramatic plot for action-seekers or thriller-finders. The essay is centered upon nature and men, and is a way for White to communicate to those who are mature enough to understand nature, men, and memories.

       White primarily relies on rich imageries and a nostalgic tone to connect nature, humanity, and memories into a beautiful picture. In describing the scenery of the lake, White was precise and awed, saying “In the shallows, the dark, water-soaked sticks and twigs, smooth and old, were undulating in clusters on the bottom against the clean ribbed sand… and the water felt thin and clear and unsubstantial”(Oates 181). In portraying his nostalgia of the lake, White used the same imaginable style, saying “I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching” (Oates 181). With pictures that readers can form in their mind, White made his trip to the lake much more realistic and connectable. Surely, every reader has a “lake” he wants to go back to.

       Adding to the rich imageries, the incessant nostalgia White portrays through his diction also calls upon the readers’ cherished past memories through nature. In reflection, White gasped, “the small waves were the same, chucking the boat under the chin, and the boat was the same boat, the same color green…” (Oates 181). All had not changed. The memories that filled White with joy, the nature of his childhood, and the nostalgia of his past were all traced back to the origin, the lake. White, through expressing a longing for the past, through the emphasis of “same”, also bestowed his readers a sense of nostalgia to both their childhood and nature.

       The years were a mirage and that there had been no years.