Wordsworth and the Lucy Poems.
William Wordsworth was one of the Romantic poets. He was born in 1770 and died in 1850. In 1843 he became the Poet Laureate. These three poems adopt a simple ballad technique.
We can assume that Lucy was an unknown pauper. It may seem unusual for a well-known poet to write about a girl who lived an insignificant existence and died without anyone knowing or caring-other than the poet.
Wordsworth lived in France for a year and he made a series of tours into Europe and he refers to his foreign travels here. He was a poet of man and nature who gained an "unfailing source of joy and purest passion" from writing about this. What is interesting is that he remained a "champion" of the poor and humble hence his choice of characters and here we mean Lucy. Charles Dickens did the same thing just like many other writers. In Auden's poem The Unknown Citizen you have the same idea.
In Lucy 1 the persona is most likely the poet. In line 2 he refers to a place outside of England and his "unknown men" are strangers (as in foreigners). He admits in line 4 that he loved Lucy. He uses the word "bore" in the past tense. We can speculate on what the "melancholy dream" was. Was it about Lucy? No doubt. Her death? Her anonymity? Her insignificance to others? He says that he will not abandon her for a second time and reveals that even if she is dead his love persists and it is stronger. Perhaps he was in France when she died and he feels guilt that he wasn't there when she died?
Wordsworth lived in the mountains in the Lake District where he felt joy and desire. Perhaps she made clothes using a spinning wheel? We know so little about her.
In Verse 4 he reflects on where she played suggesting that she was young-more like a girl than a woman? He imagines the last natural things she will have before she died. The tone is sad throughout all the three poems but there is also a strong feeling of love running through the ballads.
In Lucy 2 we are told she went to places "untrodden." It simply means that she did not frequent places where others did. Perhaps she was shy, perhaps she enjoyed her own company? She was isolated, friendless and without the support of relatives. She was on her own in life and in death too. This notion of going to a place "untrodden" by others could also be an euphemism for the fact that she has died.
In Verse 2 the poet flatters her memory by comparing her to a "violet." It is a natural image of a flower. There is an expression of a shrinking violet which springs to mind. It suggests someone shy, someone who withdraws from people, a person isolated just like Lucy. She seemed to have been an invisible woman, not easily noticeable, a woman who kept herself hidden.
The poet uses a simple but natural image of the star and compares it to her beauty.
In Verse 3 he makes a poignant comment: "she lived unknown." Few people knew even when she died. He uses another euphemism with: "ceased to be." What are the "differences?" I think by this he is speaking about his own grief because he admits to missing her.
In Lucy 3 this is more spiritual and complex, on a deeper level of meaning than the previous poems. He talks about slumber, about sleep, perhaps suggesting that death is like this? Eternal. He imagines that he is in such a deep sleep that he no longer felt fear. Think about what he might fear. Perhaps he dreams about Lucy as a spirit, in the afterlife not about a person who ever lived as in "earthly?"
The final stanza is melancholic. The poet dwells on the continuation of nature through the natural landscape: "rocks and stones and trees" and the cyclic pattern of the earth's rotation but Lucy has no "motion" or no "force." She cannot hear or see anything. There is nothing left of her.
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We can assume that Lucy was an unknown pauper. It may seem unusual for a well-known poet to write about a girl who lived an insignificant existence and died without anyone knowing or caring-other than the poet.
Wordsworth lived in France for a year and he made a series of tours into Europe and he refers to his foreign travels here. He was a poet of man and nature who gained an "unfailing source of joy and purest passion" from writing about this. What is interesting is that he remained a "champion" of the poor and humble hence his choice of characters and here we mean Lucy. Charles Dickens did the same thing just like many other writers. In Auden's poem The Unknown Citizen you have the same idea.
In Lucy 1 the persona is most likely the poet. In line 2 he refers to a place outside of England and his "unknown men" are strangers (as in foreigners). He admits in line 4 that he loved Lucy. He uses the word "bore" in the past tense. We can speculate on what the "melancholy dream" was. Was it about Lucy? No doubt. Her death? Her anonymity? Her insignificance to others? He says that he will not abandon her for a second time and reveals that even if she is dead his love persists and it is stronger. Perhaps he was in France when she died and he feels guilt that he wasn't there when she died?
Wordsworth lived in the mountains in the Lake District where he felt joy and desire. Perhaps she made clothes using a spinning wheel? We know so little about her.
In Verse 4 he reflects on where she played suggesting that she was young-more like a girl than a woman? He imagines the last natural things she will have before she died. The tone is sad throughout all the three poems but there is also a strong feeling of love running through the ballads.
In Lucy 2 we are told she went to places "untrodden." It simply means that she did not frequent places where others did. Perhaps she was shy, perhaps she enjoyed her own company? She was isolated, friendless and without the support of relatives. She was on her own in life and in death too. This notion of going to a place "untrodden" by others could also be an euphemism for the fact that she has died.
In Verse 2 the poet flatters her memory by comparing her to a "violet." It is a natural image of a flower. There is an expression of a shrinking violet which springs to mind. It suggests someone shy, someone who withdraws from people, a person isolated just like Lucy. She seemed to have been an invisible woman, not easily noticeable, a woman who kept herself hidden.
The poet uses a simple but natural image of the star and compares it to her beauty.
In Verse 3 he makes a poignant comment: "she lived unknown." Few people knew even when she died. He uses another euphemism with: "ceased to be." What are the "differences?" I think by this he is speaking about his own grief because he admits to missing her.
In Lucy 3 this is more spiritual and complex, on a deeper level of meaning than the previous poems. He talks about slumber, about sleep, perhaps suggesting that death is like this? Eternal. He imagines that he is in such a deep sleep that he no longer felt fear. Think about what he might fear. Perhaps he dreams about Lucy as a spirit, in the afterlife not about a person who ever lived as in "earthly?"
The final stanza is melancholic. The poet dwells on the continuation of nature through the natural landscape: "rocks and stones and trees" and the cyclic pattern of the earth's rotation but Lucy has no "motion" or no "force." She cannot hear or see anything. There is nothing left of her.
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
-Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!"
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