Prepared by: Ms.

Anushka Naveed

Once More to the Lake

Summary
“Once More to the Lake” is a narrative non-fiction essay written by E.B. White.
"Once More to the Lake" is an essay that reflects upon White's memories of visiting the
lake as a child and the memories he creates with his son many years later. White
describes experiencing a sense of childlike wonder that makes him feel like a child and
his father at the same time.
White begins by describing his family’s first visit to the lake in 1904, when he was five.
Despite a few hiccups, “the vacation was a success and from then on none of [White’s
family] ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake” (1). Although his
family’s annual visits to the lake are well in the past, White finds himself, yearning to
go back and plans a vacation with his son. On his way to the lake, White wonders
“how time would have marred” the campsite and whether “tarred road would have
found it out” (1). He finds that the paved road does, indeed, extend nearly all the way
to the lake but is delighted to find that the campsite is more or less the same as he
remembers.
Settling into the vacation, White is struck by a strange sensation: “I began to sustain
the illusion that [my son] was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my
father” (2). This notion persists as the two go fishing for bass, and White feels
convinced “that everything was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage
and there had been no years” (2). After catching a couple of bass, the two go for a
swim, and White takes note of the other camp-goers, who look to him exactly the
same as the camp-goers he remembers from his youth. Eventually, White and his son
go up to a farmhouse where they are served dinner by young women who appear to
be “the same country girls” (3) who have always worked at the farmhouse.
After reflecting on the virtues of summer vacation and the “jollity and peace and
goodness” (3) that characterize his memories of the camp, White pinpoints the
appearance of outboard motorboats as the quality that most spoils the illusion of a
return to his youth. He contrasts these engines with the one-cylinder boat engines that
fascinated him as a child.
Overall, White enjoys this vacation with his son and, although there have been some
noticeable changes around the camp; he is able to maintain the illusion that he has
assumed the place of his father and returned to his childhood.
Prepared by: Ms. Anushka Naveed

Q1. What does the title of the essay, Once More to the Lake mean?
Ans. ‘Once More to the Lake’ by an American writer E.B White is a narrative essay or
memoir which describes the essayist’s experiences of his revisit to the lake in Maine in
East America. He had visited the lake several times during his childhood with his family.
He is visiting again, with his son, in his old age. Hence the title is ‘Once More to the
Lake’, which means he is revisiting the lake.
Q2. Why does the essayist describe the place as a ‘Holy spot’?
Ans. The essayist describe the place as a Holy spot/ place because it provides him
solace/ peace. It makes him forget the worldly worries and takes him to his beautiful
past. It reminds him of his beautiful childhood. It makes him forget his mortality.
Q3. How has the lake changed since he was a boy?
Ans. The lake has changed in three ways since the writer was a boy.
First, where the horses drew the wagon/ vehicle has been tarred/ pitched fully.
Second, the waitresses of the restaurant have learnt to wash their hair due to the effect
of the movie.
Third, the motor boats produce irritable and awful sound now unlike before. New boats
have noisy engine.
Q4. What contrast does the writer make between the sea and the lake?
Ans. The contrast which the writer makes between the sea and the lake is of the stirred
water. The sea water can be easily stirred while the lake water cannot be stirred. The
lake is contrast and trustworthy body of water.
Q5. Why does the writer repeatedly call the lake as ‘wild lake’?
Ans. The writer repeatedly calls the lake as wild lake in order to emphasize the cottages
which surround it. He says that it is not a place where men cannot reside. Men not only
enjoy the calmness of nature of the lake but also settle in these cottages to live in a
peaceful atmosphere of the lake which is not wild.
Q6. Why is arriving at the lake less exciting now than in the past?
Ans. It is less exciting for the poet to revisit the lake with his son. This time he is not as
much enthusiastic as he used to be in the past, due to the age difference. Moreover, the
artificiality and noise pollution has also spoiled the natural beauty of the lake. It is no
more peaceful as it was before.
Prepared by: Ms. Anushka Naveed

Q7. How are motor boats different in present situation?

Ans. In the present situation the motor boats present an irritable and awful sound unlike
before. In the past, the motor engines were in board and produced less noise but now
they have been replaced by outboard motor engines which produce a lot of noise.
Previously they were one cylinder boat engines, which fascinated him as a child.
Q8. What is the main theme of this essay?
Ans. This essay has various themes which are:
Nostalgia, power of memory, transitoriness of life, inevitability of mortality/ death, father
and son relationship, past and present, man v/s himself, greatness of nature, old
technology v/s new technology.
Q9. How does the lake serve as a setting for both the author’s past and present?
Ans. The setting for this essay is a lake in Maine, USA. The essayist went to this place
in his childhood with his family and now he went there with his own son. His presence in
this place in the past and the present frequently means that he wants to enjoy serenity
(calmness) of nature. It symbolizes his desire to overcome mortality and escape death.
He wants to hold the beautiful past forever.
Q10. How does White describe the physical surrounding of the lake? Why does
he love this place?
Ans. White vividly describes the physical surrounding of the lake in his essay. He uses
simile, metaphor, imagery and personification to present its beauty. He gives the lively
view of the place in his writing. He loves this place because it provides him serenity and
solace. It reminds him of his beautiful childhood days.
Q11. White descries a dual existence which he experiences when spending time
with his son at the lake. Elucidate.
Ans. While spending time at the lake, White feels dual existence of himself. Memories of
the past haunt him. He finds himself in his son and himself as his father. He is at the
same time his father in imagination and his son’s father in reality. He sees himself in his
son because he was young when he used to come to the lake with his father, just like
his son at present.