B.Wordsworth...

Years ago, i once read a short-story by V.S.Naipaul, which perhaps falls in the gamut of his least-known works.

It was called B.Wordsworth.

And it was the story-narrated by a boy- of a man who
'felt like a poet but could never be one'.

B.Wordsworth-the 'B'is later revealed to stand for black-was a kind of tramp in one of Caribbean islands, who after befriending the narrator tells him that he was writing the world's greatest story or poem, i dont exactly remember. The boy who had found in Black a kindred soul, very different fro his nagging monther,much later realised that Black had written zilch.....

for he was some one who 'felt like a poet but could never be one'.

i had then and till today, wonder as to which is more painful?

To be endowed with no poetic spirit at all or to have the spirit but not the faculty to give it a tangible form on the paper?
i think its the latter.