She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways by William Wordsworth (Poem & Summary)

 

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

by William Wordsworth

(Poem & Summary) 

William Wordsworth was a nature worshiper and a nature painter. He was a major figure in the Romantic Movement. He writes poems by using character of nature as metaphors. He tries to bring out the beauty of nature from different aspects.

 

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

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!

 

Summary

This poem is about a girl named Lucy. The poet admires her beauty.  The poet says, that the girl is lonely and isolated but is a divine character who is pure and gentle.

The poet says, that Lucy is something hidden and neglected by people in general, but is very beautiful and is untouched. He compares her with a lonely star, all alone in the sky, which is the brightest of all in the night sky.

In the last stanza, the poet tells how unknown and hidden her life was from others, that no one ever noticed her absence. The poet speaks about her death, and tries to bring a sense of loneliness and emptiness that was left behind. She is a girl with unspoiled nature, of modesty, and her loss is represented as the loss of nature. Wordsworth portrays Lucy in the image of nature, and hence her loss is the loss of the nature.