I Travelled among Unknown Men by William Wordsworth (Poem & Summary)

 

I Travelled among Unknown Men

by William Wordsworth

(Poem & Summary) 

I Travelled among Unknown Men

I travelled among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;

Nor, England! did I know till then

What love I bore to thee.

 

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!

Nor will I quit thy shore

A second time; for still I seem

To love thee more and more.

 

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

 

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,

The bowers where Lucy played;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

 

Summary

In the poem, the poet describes his travels. He says, that he once travelled among people in foreign lands. He travelled the places, beyond the sea of his homeland. He says, that he did not realize his love for England until he travelled to other places.

The poet further says that his voyage was like a melancholy dream. He says, that he travelled in the past, but now he does not want to leave the shores of England a second time, because he has started loving England more as time goes by.

Wordsworth says, that he enjoyed being in England in the past. He was happy in the mountains of the country and he felt the joy of his “desire”. The object of his desire was a woman who would turn a spinning wheel beside the fireplace.

In the last stanza, the poet continues to address England directly, describing the passage of time. He explains how the morning light revealed Lucy’s cottage, while the nights concealed it. He says, that Lucy played there. England’s green fields are also the last place that Lucy saw, and she passed away there.