She dwelt among the untrodden ways Essays - British Poetry

She dwelt among the untrodden ways William Wordsworth She dwelt among the untrodden ways -By William Wordsworth In the elegiac poem "She dwelt among the untrodden ways", by William Wordsworth, a sense of loss and grief is conveyed as the personal feelings of the poet are described to us. We are told throughout the poem of the poet's deep love for an unmarried woman named 'Lucy'. We are also told that she is unnoticed by all others, but him. The poet describes to us where Lucy 'dwelt', her beauty, his love for her and her 'death' in this poem. In the first stanza we are told that Lucy dwelt among the ' untrodden ways besides the springs of Dove'. This implies many meanings. Literally, it refers to where she lived. The phrase 'beside the springs of Dove' gives us an image of a fairly remote area, away from the city, closer to nature. It also tells us that she lived in isolation and solitude. The reason for this however is not clear; maybe she chose to live there or was forced by some circumstances to do so. Metaphorically , it could be referring to the deeper aspects of her life, such as what she did or who she was . And took her as the mossy stone, but the persona saw beyond what they could see and hence realized her true beauty, past her physical appearance and into her soul. The very fact that a violet is placed by a mossy stone means that people will fail to notice the beauty of the violet as it will be overshadowed by the sliminess of the mossy stone. To the persona however, Lucy was special and he was the only one who could see how beautiful she really was. Another interesting possibility is that maybe despite the fact that the persona loved Lucy so much, she got married to another man. Then the phrase 'a violet beside a mossy stone' will make more sense; as the poet still loves Lucy just as much and hence compares her to the violet, but looks down upon her husband and compares him to a 'mossy stone'. As we know, a mossy stone is very slimy and possibly the poet considers Lucy's husband to be no more that slime. The line 'Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky' sho ws what the persona thinks about her and this could imply that to him, she is a bright star shin ing in the dark black sky. To the fact that she got married to another man when the persona loved her so passionately. The fact that the poet mentions that 'she lived unknown and few could know' when Lucy died and the use of the phrase 'but she is in her grave' gives a very strong possibility that he was a 'secret admirer' or that not many people knew about their relationship and that was the reason why she lived 'unknown' and hence when Lucy got married, she practically 'died' for the persona, yet no one else could know. The phrase 'the difference to me' also tells us that since only the persona knew about Lucy's 'death' and no one else knew about their relationship, he was the only one affected and hence depressed by this. Even though the poem is very short and simple, a striking feature of the language used is its simplicity. The poet has used simple, everyday words, with short sentences, but is still able to create a very powerful and meaningful piece that truly reflects his feelings and portrays a huge sense of loss very effectively so that we as the readers can fully appreciate his true feelings and be able to see the passionate love that this man had for Lucy. In the first stanza, lines like, "none to praise," "very few to love," and the word " untrodden " tell the reader that Lucy was a nobody to everyone except the poet. In the second stanza, Wordsworth's aim is to show her innocence and beauty again. He uses two simple metaphors to emphasize these qualities. "A violet by a mossy stone" and "Fair as a star, when onlyone