Lucy’s death is expressed with great sadness: “But she is in her grave, and, oh”. This cyclical form conveys great dramatic intensity.
Moreover, this cycle is also related to the movement between growth and death (In the first stanza she is presented as alive, whereas in the last stanza the lyrical voice talks about her death). Notice how this stanza repeats the characterization of Lucy as distant and unknown (like in the first stanza). The lyrical voice accentuates her isolation: “She lived unknown, and few could know/ When Lucy ceased to be ”. The final stanza serves as an antithesis. This word usage creates meaningful and powerful poetry that emphasizes passionate feelings of love and grief. Notice how her description is made by an economic use of words, as they depict Lucy’s simplicity by using short, straightforward, everyday words. These comparisons serve to exemplify Lucy as an embodiment of all beauty. She is likened to “A violet by a mossy stone/ Half hidden from the eye” and to a fair star “when only one/Is shining in the sky”. As a representative Romanic device, the lyrical voice compares the beauty of nature to the grace of Lucy. The first line, which serves also as the title of the poem, suggests that Lucy lived both physically and spiritually unrevealed and distant. Although this rural scenery is described as idyllic and magnificent place (“among the untrodden ways/Beside the springs of Dove”), Lucy was alone and there was no one to praise her and to love her (A Maid whom there were none to praise/ And very few to love”). Notice how it is described that she “dwelt”, meaning that she lived there in the past. From the first line, the lyrical voice refers to a “She”, his/her loved one that will later acquire a name (“Lucy”). This rural scenery is described as a locus amoenus, an idealized beautiful place. The first stanza describes the area in which Lucy (“She”) lived. She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways Analysis First Stanza Moreover, it is a short lyric form that concerns rural life. The poem celebrates a girl by associating her with nature with straightforward language and emphasizing emotional expression. She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways is a prototypical representative of a Romantic poem. Thus, She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways’s main theme is death, a death that is described and grieved for throughout the entire poem. She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways has three quatrains with simple language (mainly words of one syllable), and it has an ABAB rhyme scheme. Furthermore, Wordsworth’s poem can be read as an elegiac poem, with graceful descriptions and a mourning tone.
The poem examines loneliness and loss, but also unrecognized beauty and dignity. In this series, Wordsworth examines an idealized and unrequited love for Lucy, a girl who has died young.
This poem is Wordsworth’s best-known work from a series of five texts that form his “Lucy” series. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways was written in 1798. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.