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Once More to the Lake

“Once More To The Lake” by E.B. White captures the theme of nostalgia. Throughout

the essay, White expresses nostalgia when he writes about his quiet place on the lake and his

vacations there with his father and now with his son. The focus of this essay is on the author’s

devotion to his son, remembrance of his childhood, and his understanding of time and mortality.

The author, E.B. White, was born in New York in 1899. He attended Cornell University

and there he served as an editor for the school’s newspaper. White began and ended his career as

a writer and contributing editor for ​The New Yorker ​ m

​ agazine. He has created many famous and

timeless pieces, most popular being​ Stuart Little ​and ​Charlotte’s Web​. Although White is mainly

known for children’s books, his most recognized adult pieces include the essay “Once More to

the Lake,” which focuses on White’s remembrance of his blissful childhood and experiences he

had with his father and now his son.

White’s focus in the essay “Once More to the Lake” can be depicted through his

organizational skills. E.B. White has multiple parts to his essay that follow a chronological

order. White begins by recalling pieces of his past. He then transitions into his present life. White

describes his reasoning behind going to the cabin because he enjoyed the lake as a child. As the

story continues, White begins to break down his own vacation, starting from the first event and

continuing in sequential order. The essay includes a thesis that leads the reader through the mind

and memories White had as a young boy and how White’s son mirrors these memories. The

thesis White implies in his essay is the message that the recollection of his childhood memories

makes him feel as if he is still young and time has not passed.The chronological order of events

ensure a better understanding of this thesis for the reader.

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White uses a first person perspective while describing each of the chronological events.

The author uses an abundance of the word “I.” The only other person in the essay that White

refers to is his son. In the story, he never uses his son’s name, only, “my boy” or “my son.” The

only time the author does talk about his son is when he wants to compare his old self to his son

because of how they act. The information provided above shows the author is in a state of self

reflection throughout the essay. White’s greatest childhood memories were those on the lake.

Now that White is older, he wants his son to experience the same feeling he felt when he was a

kid. So, White brought his son to a cabin on the lake and as the story unfolds, the author starts to

compare his son’s reactions and his reactions when he was younger and how they are identical.

The author is very particular with his comparisons due to the amount of detail he puts into his

flashbacks. He names exactly what he's doing and when he was doing it, sometimes he can feel

his son’s expressions during the trip. This is shown at the end of his story, he ends it by

expressing how he felt when his son jumped into the water and how he could feel the cold shiver

of his groin hitting the water.

White uses effective words to project a feeling of nostalgia. As the author explains the

happiness of his childhood, he uses scenes and the five senses to create images of the past. White

expresses the feeling of nostalgia and creates these images through his son. White states, “I

began to sustain the illusion that he was I,” but is implied when he claimed “...it was my hands

that held his rod, my eyes watching.” White’s son was holding a fishing rod, mirroring almost

exactly what White had done as a child. As White witnessed his son performing this action, he is

unable to differentiate whether his son was holding the rod, or whether it was White himself.
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This event made White feel “dizzy,” which he refers to as seeing double. White’s sense of sight

and touch, along with the use of diction, recreate White’s childhood memories.

White communicates the connection between his son and his childhood memories

through concise diction and varied sentence structure. The author’s choice of diction, such as

“holy spot,” “sweet outdoors,” “cool,” “ motionless,” and “sensation” indicate the lake brings

back positive memories. These words describe aspects of White’s childhood memories that

connect to his attitudes and emotions towards them. Sentence structure also contributes to the

author’s attitude toward his memories. White’s extensive use of positive adjectives and adverbs

combined with descriptive compound sentences leave little room for imagination. White uses

adjectives such as “enchanted,” “unsubstantial,” “trustworthy,” and “constant” to enhance the

message of the desire for mortality. Stating, “...everything was as it always had been, that the

years were a mirage and there had been no years…” also shows that in White’s perspective, no

time had passed. His immortality was interrupted with the thunderstorm that appeared as White

was about to leave. The thunderstorm expresses White’s disappointment of the departure from

his childhood and realization that time does not stop, and he is not immortal.

In the essay, E. B. White’s use of vocabulary is also a heavy contributor in conveying

White’s desire for mortality. White’s uncomplicated and descriptive choice of vocabulary

enhances his ability to convey his love and remembrance of his childhood. For example, the

essay states, “We went fishing the first morning. I felt the same damp moss covering the worms

in the bait can, and saw the dragonfly alight on the tip of my rod as it hovered a few inches from

the surface of the water.” This quote describes various minute details of the author’s fishing trip

which shows the reader how well White remembers his childhood. This quote also displays
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White’s attention to detail, reflecting how fond he was of the lake and the memories it held.

Another example is that throughout the essay, White describes his experiences on the lake using

various descriptive words such as “small,” “damp,” and “hot.” Although these words are not

complex, when in context, they are sufficient enough to provide the reader with a clear visual

and message of the essay. This message contains the idea of mortality and remembrance. White’s

vocabulary and descriptive word choice fits the topic he has written about and complements his

message of remembrance and mortality.

Throughout the essay, the author manipulates vocabulary to suit his purpose of

conveying the message of remembrance and mortality to his audience. In essay, White takes

simple, general words that have a fixed meaning and uses them to fulfill his purpose and provide

a new, deeper meaning to his topic. For example, the essay states, “I wondered how time would

have marred in this unique, holy spot- the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind…”

In this sentence, the word “holy” is present, which is commonly seen as having religious value,

but the author uses the word in a context that allows the reader to imagine the land that he

recollects as being sacred and valuable to him.

White also uses various forms of imagery when crafting his ideas and message. He

appeals to the senses, primarily sight, touch and sound. White implements these senses in order

to create a clear and detailed image of his experiences and memories on the lake. The following

quote accurately depicts the use of these senses and how they contribute to the value of the essay.

The quote states, “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 track of the mussel

was plain.” This quote allows the reader to clearly envision the lake that White was fishing on as
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well as the small yet important details of his experience there. As White describes the lake as

“the shallows,” the reader is provided with a specific description of the lake that White finds

valuable to his childhood rather than just an idea of a body of water. Another example of vivid

imagery is found in the quote, “The only thing that was wrong now, really, was the sound of the

place, an unfamiliar, nervous sound of the outboard motors.” In this quote, White uses vivid

imagery that not only describes the sound of the outboard motors, but describes White’s

emotions and attitude towards their presence. By showing how these simple elements and

objects, for example a sound, personally affect White, the reader’s understanding of the essay is

enhanced. Furthermore, White’s use of imagery allows for a deeper understanding of the events

in the essay, such as his emotions towards concepts and events at the lake, rather than just a basic

understanding of these events.

On one page alone, page 123, fifty-two percent of the page is composed of compound

sentences. Simple sentences make up fourteen percent of the page and compound - complex

sentences account for thirty-four percent of the page. The author uses many different types of

sentences, the majority being compound sentences. The author’s shortest sentence comprises of

just five words while his longest sentence on page 123 comprises of sixty-five words. His

shorter sentences are simple sentences and his longer sentences are structures as compound

sentences. The author’s average sentence length is about twenty words. The author has very long

sentence lengths because of how much detail he includes in his essay. All of the key details that

the author speaks of are from his childhood and how the key memories are exactly like his own

son’s memories. The author also incorporates both loose and periodic sentences within the essay.
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In an accumulation of detail, which includes twenty-one collective sentences, there are fourteen

loose sentences and seven periodic sentences.

“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White emphasizes the importance of relishing and

reflecting on childhood memories. Throughout the essay, White’s use of tone, language,

vocabulary, imagery, and syntax help him express his emotions and realization that time passes

but memories made during that time remain forever. In contrast to the society existing during the

writing of “Once More to the Lake,” today's society is not as connected to their past memories

and childhood. White establishes a strong relationship with his past and uses it to build his

future, but now it seems as if one’s childhood memories are disregarded and nearly forgotten,

due to the fast pace of today’s society. In White’s world, time froze, while in today’s world, it

seems as if time passes in an instant and does not allow for the recalling of life’s memorable

moments.
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Once More to the Lake Quiz

1. Where does the story take place?

A. A cabin on the lake

B. The narrator’s beach house

C. The narrator’s backyard

D. Lake Victoria

2. During what month did the narrator’s father take him to the lake?

A. January

B. June

C. August

D. November

3. What state was the lake located in?

A. Massachusetts

B. Maine

C. Vermont

D. Washington

4. Why did the narrator only refer to his son as “my boy” or “my son”?

A. Because he didn’t know his name

B. Because he saw his childhood self in his son

C. Because his name was embarrassing

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D. Because the narrator’s father only referred to him as “my boy” and “my

son”

5. What was the significance of the lake to the narrator?

A. He liked going to the lake

B. The memories of the lake remind him of his happy childhood

C. He was abused by his father there

D. It shows his love for freshwater

6. What’s the first thing that the narrator and his son did at the lake?

A. Unpacked

B. Swam

C. Roasted Marshmallows

D. Went fishing

7.What did the narrator mean when stating “... it was my hands that held his rod, my

eyes watching.”

A. They were holding the rod at the same time

B. The narrator took the fishing rod from his son

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C. The narrator was reminiscing on his childhood memories and saw himself

fishing as his son was

D. The narrator was giving his son fishing lessons

8. What’s the significance of the middle track missing on the two track road?

A. The narrator acknowledges that over time physical objects fade, yet the

memories of these objects live on

B. He’s getting too old to remember where the middle track went

C. The middle track was the widest

D. The two track road stopped working

9. What was the significance of the thunderstorm?

A. The trip was ruined

B. The thunderstorm dissolved the narrators happy memories of the lake and

made him feel as though his peaceful world on the lake halted and life

continued

C. The thunderstorm caused a flood

D. His son didn’t get home in time to miss the thunderstorm

10. What does the line, “... my groin felt the chill of death” mean?

A. He got injured

B. He got hypothermia

C. The narrator remembered that his own son didn’t know how to swim
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D. When seeing his son enter the cold lake, the narrator was reminded of

how he felt entering the lake as a child and could almost feel the chill of the

water

Once More to the Lake Answers

1. A.

2. C

3. B

4. B

5. B

6. D
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7. C

8. A

9. B

10. D

https://www.biography.com/writer/eb-white

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-b-white