At that moment, the mother spied the print of Lucys feet. For five stanzas Nature describes the ways in which Lucy is synonymous with the beauty and the power of the natural world: she plays like a fawn and feels silent sympathy with the changing weather; her face possesses the loveliness of a burbling stream. "To-night will be a stormy night--. You to the town must go; And take a lantern, Child, to light. [6] The meeting laid the foundation for an intense and profoundly creative friendship, based in part on their shared disdain for the artificial diction of the poetry of the era. [86] She became, in the opinion of the American poet and writer David Ferry (b. 1929), when he claimed, "It is in the Lucy poems that the notion of spirit of place, and particularly English spirit of place, reaches its purest form. Her memory is connected with the memory of England, and his love for England and Lucy are one and the same. Oer rough and smooth she trips along,And never looks behind;And sings a solitary songThat whistles in the wind. However, the sight of her footprint gives hope. "[52] Kenneth and Warren Ober compare the opening lines of "She dwelt" to the traditional ballad "Katharine Jaffray" and note similarities in rhythm and structure, as well as in theme and imagery: There livd a lass in yonder dale, Francis Jacox, writing under the pseudonym "Parson Frank", remarked that "Strange fits" contained "true pathos. Will I gladly do:. And there the poem ends! Wordsworth 1967, 212, "Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) - The Comprehensive Britten Song Database", Lake Reminiscences; By the English Opium-Eater, Biography and Works of William Wordsworth, Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lucy_poems&oldid=1148360271, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The literary theorist Frances Ferguson (b. That, Father! Beside the springs of Dove, 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Other times, he despairs. The falling action occurs near the end of the story, following the climax and before the resolution. [77] None of the proposals have met with widespread acceptance. The original version began with floral imagery, which was later cut:[63], My hope was one, from cities far, With hope in their hearts, they continue to follow in her footsteps. In his poem, Strange Fits of Passion have I known, he describes the crippling fear of losing the one he loves. Literary scholar Mark Jones offers a general characterisation of a Lucy poem as "an untitled lyrical ballad that either mentions Lucy or is always placed with another poem that does, that either explicitly mentions her death or is susceptible of such a reading, and that is spoken by Lucy's lover. Critics have not been able to come to a decisive stance on the identity of Lucy, and those who knew Wordsworth best claim that he was very elusive when asked about her. [37] Neither Lucy nor Wordsworth's other female characters "exist as independent self-conscious human beings with minds as capable of the poet's" and are "rarely allowed to speak for themselves. [53] The poem begins in a descriptive rather than narrative manner, and it is not until the line "When Lucy ceased to be" that the reader is made aware that the subject of the verse has died. GradeSaver "The Lucy Poems Summary". This stanza provides the setting and the foreshadowing for the rest of the poem. [72], Although "I travelled" was written two years after the other poems in the series, it echoes the earlier verses in both tone and language. It is more likely that Margaret's death influenced but is not the foundation for Lucy. This perhaps is a story he has heard from another. I would assume that Lucy would read Wordworth's words and be touched. even flattered by his attention. A second time; for still I seem A narrative recollection of the speakers trip to Lucys cottage during the evening as the moon sinks lower throughout the journey. The story perpetrated about Lucy Gray suggests that if her spirit lives on, it is the happy spirit of a lively young child skipping along through the snow. This suggests that it is the spirit of Lucy that is alive and can still be seen. And doun in yonder glen, O. will I gladly do:Tis scarcely afternoonThe minster-clock has just struck two,And yonder is the moon!. William Wordsworth mentions the character "Lucy" many times throughout his poems, such as in Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known.Sometimes, she is symbolic of a lover, and other times of the pure and innocent love of a father for his child. [31][A 3]. Wordsworth fears that the very spirit presiding over his poetry is ephemeral, and I think he refuses to distinguish between its death in him and its historical decline."[103]. [93] The imagery used to evoke these notions serves to separate Lucy from everyday reality. Word Count: 770 William Wordsworth didn't give titles to any of the Lucy poems, but by convention they are commonly referred to by their opening lines. To him, this is an act of loyalty. She no longer hears nor sees, having returned to the earth and become one With rocks, and stones, and trees., "The Lucy Poems - Summary" eNotes Publishing Although Wordsworth claimed that the poem was composed while he was still in Germany, it was in fact written during April 1801. By now, the reader is likely fully sympathizing with the parents. [82], According to critic Norman Lacey, Wordsworth built his reputation as a "poet of nature". Then downwards from the steep hills edgeThey tracked the footmarks small;And through the broken hawthorn hedge,And by the long stone-wall; With this, the parents begin to follow her footprints. The first stanza simply strikes up curiosity about Lucy and sets her up as an important figure. The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (17701850) between 1798 and 1801. He rides on, but the moon reaches the cottage first. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Throughout this cycle of poems, the speaker relays his memories to the reader. Summary "Strange fits of passion have I known" Summary The speaker proclaims that he has been the victim of "strange fits of passion"; he says that he will describe one of these fits, but only if he can speak it "in the Lover's ear alone." [17], Although Wordsworth sought emotional support from his sister, their relationship remained strained throughout their time in Germany. In the poem, Lucy is both actual and idealised, but her actuality is relevant only insofar as it makes manifest the significance implicit in the actual girl. The poem ends with a premonition thats fittingly ominous, given what has come before: Oh mercy! to myself I cried, / If Lucy should be dead!. [35][95] Each creates an ambiguity between the sublime and nothingness,[96] as they attempt to reconcile the question of how to convey the death of a girl intimately connected to nature. The new lines direct the narrative towards "the Lover's ear alone", implying that only other lovers can understand the relationship between the moon, the beloved and the beloved's death. In a sense, the speaker attempts to prolong and continue his devotion to her in life by so ardently preserving her memory. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Ed. However, the poem memorializes an unnamed and departed she. The spirit of the first line appears to be Lucy, and the slumber her death. She was a beautiful and solitary maiden who resided in the remote English countryside near the River Dove. [9] He and Coleridge planned to collaborate, but never moved beyond suggestions and notes for each other. Yet it is not without its Is shining in the sky. Four out of the five poems identify Lucy by name. "[78], With the exception of "A slumber", all of the poems mention Lucy by name. [23] Wordsworth gives no hint as to the identity of Lucy, and although he stated in the preface to Lyrical Ballads that all the poems were "founded on fact", knowing the basis for the character of Lucy is not necessary to appreciating the poem and understanding its sentiment. to myself I cried, / If Lucy should be dead!' [122], Among settings of individual poems is Benjamin Britten's "Lucy" ("I travelled among unknown men") composed in 1926.[123]. Get LitCharts A +. [32], Literary scholar Karl Kroeber (19262009) argues that Lucy "possesses a double existence; her actual, historical existence and her idealised existence in the poet's mind. The impoverished Wordsworth, however, could neither afford to follow Coleridge nor provide for himself and his sister in Hamburg; the siblings instead moved to moderately priced accommodations in Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany. At day-break on a hill they stoodThat overlooked the moor;And thence they saw the bridge of wood,A furlong from their door. The speakerwho has been recounting the journey and indicating the passion he feels for Lucyis stunned by the sudden disappearance of the moon behind Lucy's cottage. "[5], The two poets had met three years earlier in either late August or September 1795 in Bristol. They see that she walked through the broken hawthorn hedge and by the long stone-wall. This big but bitter truth must be accepted. "Wordsworth's Lucy Poems in Psychobiographical Context". The second date is today's [2] Some scholars speculate that Lucy is based on his sister Dorothy, while others see her as a fictitious or hybrid character. [60] Throughout the poem sadness and ecstasy are intertwined, a fact emphasised by the exclamation marks in the second and third verses. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Lucy Poems by William Wordsworth. Your mother through the snow." "That, Father! These were generally intended to ridicule the simplification of textual complexities and deliberate ambiguities in poetry. Please enter your email address. If you were Lucy how would you feel about William Wordsworth? "Poet and Lover in Wordsworth's 'Lucy' Poems". Beginning in 1797, the two lived within walking distance of each other in Somerset, which solidified their friendship. [90], The series presents nature as a force by turns benevolent and malign. GradeSaver "The Lucy Poems Study Guide". He finds harmony rather than harshness in the contrast between the illusion of love and the fact of death. She lived unknown, and few could know. Some have suggested that Lucy may represent Wordsworths sister Dorothy or one of his love interests. While the poem begins with a narration by the main speaker, nature is also personified and speaks throughout much of the verse. The poem depicts the relationship between Lucy and nature through a complex opposition of images. When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! A conflict between nature and humanity is described, as each attempts to possess Lucy. As Wordsworth proclaimed in the prelude to the second volume of the Lyrical Ballads, he wished to choose incidents and situations from common life recounted through language really used by men.. The Lucy Poems essays are academic essays for citation. "Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower" is one of Romantic poet William Wordsworth's mysterious "Lucy poems," a sequence in which an anonymous speaker mourns the woman he loved. Here, the speaker describes Lucy's upbringing. The speaker has already mentioned that she dwelt among the moor. He was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. And when I think upon that night They see that she walked through the broken hawthorn hedge and by the long stone-wall. Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:And, when I crossed the wild,I chanced to see at break of dayThe solitary child. William Wordsworth". To love thee more and more. This stanza reveals to the readers that the body of little Lucy was never found. This gives a peaceful description of Lucy and implies that she perhaps sang and skipped along before the storm took her away. eNotes.com Separated from his friend and forced to live in the sole company of his sister, Wordsworth used the "Lucy poems" as an emotional outlet. It was the spirit of Lucy Gray that he had often heard of and which he claims to have seen. [100] Her death suggests that nature can bring pain to all, even to those who loved her. A lover trots away to see his mistress one fine evening, staring all the way at the moon: when he comes to her door, 'O mercy! Of "Strange fits", she wrote, "[this] next poem is a favorite of minei.e. The speaker says that she has no mate and no comrade. William Wordsworths Lucy Poems consist of five verses composed between 1798 and 1801. Lucy not only lives away from society on the moors, but she also travels through the wilderness. For the speaker, however, the loss is devastating. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. [74] The lifeless rocks and stones depicted in the concluding line convey the finality of Lucy's death. Written in the quatrain form roughly resembling the ballad metre, linking these poems to the vernacular tradition of Border Ballads, 'I travelled among unknown men' is one of Wordsworth's most accessible famous poems. Three of the five poems were set to music and recorded by the orchestral pop band The Divine Comedy on their album Liberation. Wordsworth.". William Wordsworth's poem "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" is a ballad narrating the story of a maid named Lucy. [7] Dorothy, Wordsworth's sister, related the effect Coleridge had on her brother in a March 1798 letter: "His faculties seem to expand every day, he composes with much more facility than he did, as to the mechanism [emphasis in original] of poetry, and his ideas flow faster than he can express them. [79] Nevertheless, the question of inclusion is further complicated by Wordsworth's eventual retraction of these instructions and his omission of "I travelled" from the two subsequent editions of Lyrical Ballads. The image of a little girl, doing as her father asked, kicking up snow as she walks, serves to attach the readers to Lucy. GradeSaver, The Identity of Lucy in Wordsworth's Lucy Poems, Quiz for "Strange fits of passion have I known", Quiz for "She dwelt among the untrodden ways", Quiz for "Three years she grew in sun and shower", Purity, Simplicity, and Loss in Wordsworth's "Song", View Wikipedia Entries for The Lucy Poems. Although nature shapes Lucy over time and she is seen as part of nature herself, the poem shifts abruptly when she dies. "[115] Later critics focused on the importance of the poems to Wordsworth's poetic technique. When this guiding light disappears, he wonders in fear what he would do should Lucy ever die. [28] Wordsworth, depressed over the separation from his friend, in this interpretation, expresses both his love for his sister and fantasies about her loss through the poems. [62] The revisions exclude many of the images but emphasise the grief that the narrator experienced. + Guide Share Cite William Wordsworth Nationality: English William Wordsworth is one of the most renowned and influential Romantic poets. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. [61], An early draft of "She dwelt" contained two stanzas which had been omitted from the first edition. [40], Wordsworth's voice slowly disappears from the poems as they progress, and his voice is entirely absent from the fifth poem. Lucy is a powerful image of his past that still haunts him in the present. '"[35], Scholar John Mahoney observes that whether Lucy is intended to represent Dorothy, Mary or another is much less important to understanding the poems than the fact that she represented "a hidden being who seems to lack flaws and is alone in the world. [16][49] Evidence for this later date comes from a letter Wordsworth wrote to Mary Hutchinson referring to "I travelled" as a newly created poem. Four out of the five poems identify. This poem gives a fuller portrait of Lucy. [25] There is no evidence, however, that the poet loved any of the Hutchinsons other than Mary. Of the history of that emotion, he has told us nothing; I forbear, therefore, to inquire concerning it, or even to speculate. The Lucy Poems Summary and Analysis of "Strange fits of passion have I known" Summary Stanza 1: In the first stanza, the speaker describes how he has experienced a feeling to which he refers ambiguously as "strange fits of passion." William Wordsworth is one of the most renowned and influential Romantic poets. Powell, Thomas. "[112] A few years later, John Wright, an early Wordsworth commentator, described the contemporary perception that "Strange fits" had a "deep but subdued and 'silent fervour'". But they do, and furthermore, they claim that she can still be seen upon the lonesome wild. [114], At the beginning of the 20th century, literary critic David Rannie praised the poems as a whole: "that strange little lovely group, which breathe a passion unfamiliar to Wordsworth, and about which heso ready to talk about the genesis of his poemshas told us nothing [] Let a poet keep some of his secrets: we need not grudge him the privacy when the poetry is as beautiful as this; when there is such celebration of girlhood, love, and death [] The poet's sense of loss is sublime in its utter simplicity. This renewed love for his country leads him to proclaim that he will never leave it again. , 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. all Rights Reserved even to those who loved her a favorite minei.e. You feel about William Wordsworth summary of the poem lucy by william wordsworth, given what has come before Oh... Her up as an important figure this renewed love for England and Lucy are one and the her... 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