“She dwelt among the untrodden ways” by William Wordsworth

I like Wordsworth’s poetry, but I think the beauty in his lines informs me that romantic poetry, and poets with as strong a voice as Wordsworth, are remembered for a reason. The poem I am featuring today is a lovely one titled “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” and it details a girl named Lucy, a maid, who Wordsworth was in love with but who had died at a young age. We can see this as an “elegy” or an “elegiac poem,” as it is a poem in remembrance of someone.

As poemanalysis.com states of the verse: “The poem celebrates a girl by associating her to nature with straightforward language and emphasizing on emotional expression. Moreover, it is s short lyric form that concerns rural life.” I have this poem in a bedside poetry handbook that I read every once in a while, because it has a great impact on my senses (similar to “Oread” by H.D.). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

She dwelt among the untrodden ways” by William Wordsworth

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!

Pocket Book of Poetry | Fall River Press