The Lucy poems

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Half length portrait of rosy-cheeked man in his late twenties, sitting in black coat and white high-necked ruffled
shirt with his left hand in his coat. He has medium-length brown hair .

William Shuter, Portrait of William Wordsworth, 1798. Earliest known portrait of Wordsworth, painted in the year
he wrote the first drafts of "The Lucy poems"[1 ]
The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770
1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads,
a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworth's first major
publication and a milestone in the early English Romantic movement.[A 1] In the series, Wordsworth sought to
write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing and death .
The poems were written during a short period while the poet lived in Germany. Although they individually deal
with a variety of themes, as a series they focus on the poet's longing for the company of his friend Coleridge, who
had stayed in England, and on his increasing impatience with his sister Dorothy, who had travelled with him abroad.
Wordsworth examines the poet's unrequited love for the idealised character of Lucy, an English girl who has died
young. The idea of her death weighs heavily on the poet throughout the series, imbuing it with a melancholic,
elegiac tone. Whether Lucy was based on a real woman or was a figment of the poet's imagination has long been a
matter of debate among scholars. Generally reticent about the poems, Wordsworth never revealed the details of
her origin or identity.[2] Some scholars speculate that Lucy is based on his sister Dorothy, while others see her as a
fictitious or hybrid character. Most critics agree that she is essentially a literary device upon whom he could project,
meditate and reflect .
The "Lucy poems" consist of "Strange fits of passion have I known", "She dwelt among the untrodden ways", "I
travelled among unknown men", "Three years she grew in sun and shower", and "A slumber did my spirit seal".
Although they are presented as a series in modern anthologies, Wordsworth did not conceive of them as a group,
nor did he seek to publish the poems in sequence. He described the works as "experimental" in the prefaces to
both the 1798 and 1800 editions of Lyrical Ballads, and revised the poems significantlyshifting their thematic
emphasisbetween 1798 and 1799. Only after his death in 1850 did publishers and critics begin to treat the poems
as a fixed group; anthologies since have generally presented them as a series .
Contents [hide ]
1 Background
1.1 Lyrical Ballads
1.1 Separation from Coleridge
1.1 Identity of Lucy
1 The poems
1.1 " Strange fits of passion have I known "
1.1 " She dwelt among the untrodden ways "
1.1 " I travelled among unknown men "
1.2 " Three years she grew in sun and shower "
1.3 " A slumber did my spirit seal "
1 Grouping as a series
2 Interpretation
2.1 Nature
2.1 Death
3 Critical assessment
4 Parodies and allusions
5 Notes
6 References
7 Bibliography
11 External links
Background[edit ]

Lyrical Ballads[edit ]
Main article: Lyrical Ballads
See also: William Wordsworth's early life
Yellowed book page saying "LYRICAL BALLADS, WITH A FEW OTHER POEMS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. & A. ARCH,
GRACECHURCH-STREET. 1798 ".

Title page for the first edition of Lyrical Ballads
In 1798 Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge jointly published Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, a
collection of verses each had written separately. The book became hugely popular and was published widely; it is
generally considered a herald of the Romantic movement in English literature.[3][4] In it, Wordsworth aimed to use
everyday language in his compositions[5] as set out in the preface to the 1802 edition: "The principal object, then,
proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them,
throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and at the same time, to throw
over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an
unusual aspect."[5 ]
The two poets had met three years earlier in either late August or September 1795 in Bristol.[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. Beginning in 1797, the two lived within walking distance of each other in
Somerset, which solidified their friendship. Wordsworth believed that his life before meeting Coleridge was
sedentary and dull, and that his poetry amounted to little. Coleridge influenced Wordsworth, and his praise and
encouragement inspired Wordsworth to write prolifically.[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."[8] With his new inspiration, Wordsworth came to believe he could write poetry rivalling that
of John Milton.[9] He and Coleridge planned to collaborate, but never moved beyond suggestions and notes for
each other.[10 ]
The expiration of Wordsworth's Alfoxton House lease soon provided an opportunity for the two friends to live
together. They conceived a plan to settle in Germany with Dorothy and Coleridge's wife, Sara, "to pass the two
ensuing years in order to acquire the German language, and to furnish ourselves with a tolerable stock of
information in natural science".[11] In September 1798, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Dorothy travelled to Germany
to explore proximate living arrangements, but this proved difficult. Although they lived together in Hamburg for a
short time, the city was too expensive for their budgets. Coleridge soon found accommodations in the town of
Ratzeburg in Schleswig-Holstein, which was less expensive but still socially vibrant. 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.[12 ]
Separation from Coleridge[edit ]
Half-length portrait of man wearing a black jacket and white shirt with an elaborate white bow at the neck. He has
wavy, medium-length brown hair .

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by Peter Van Dyke, 1795. A major poet and one of the foremost critics of the day,
Coleridge collaborated on Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth and remained a close friend and confidant for many
years.[13 ]
Between October 1798 and February 1799, Wordsworth worked on the first draft of the "Lucy poems" together
with a number of other verses, including the "Matthew poems", "Lucy Gray" and The Prelude. Coleridge had yet to
join the siblings in Germany, and Wordsworth's separation from his friend depressed him. In the three months
following their parting, Wordsworth completed the first three of the "Lucy poems": "Strange fits", "She dwelt", and
"A slumber".[14] They first appeared in a letter to Coleridge dated December 1798, in which Wordsworth wrote
that "She dwelt" and "Strange fits" were "little Rhyme poems which I hope will amuse you".[15] Wordsworth
characterised the two poems thus to mitigate any disappointment Coleridge might suffer in receiving these two
poems instead of the promised three-part philosophical epic The Recluse.[16 ]
In the same letter, Wordsworth complained that :
As I have had no books I have been obliged to write in self-defense. I should have written five times as much as I
have done but that I am prevented by an uneasiness at my stomach and side, with a dull pain about my heart. I
have used the word pain, but uneasiness and heat are words which more accurately express my feelings. At all
events it renders writing unpleasant. Reading is now become a kind of luxury to me. When I do not read I am
absolutely consumed by thinking and feeling and bodily exertions of voice or of limbs, the consequence of those
feelings.[15 ]
Wordsworth partially blamed Dorothy for the abrupt loss of Coleridge's company. He felt that their finances
insufficient for supporting them both in Ratzeburgwould have easily supported him alone, allowing him to follow
Coleridge. Wordsworth's anguish was compounded by the contrast between his life and that of his friend.
Coleridge's financial means allowed him to entertain lavishly and to seek the company of nobles and intellectuals;
Wordsworth's limited wealth constrained him to a quiet and modest life. Wordsworth's envy seeped into his letters
when he described Coleridge and his new friends as "more favored sojourners" who may "be chattering and
chatter'd to, through the whole day".[17 ]
Although Wordsworth sought emotional support from his sister, their relationship remained strained throughout
their time in Germany. Separated from his friend and forced to live in the sole company of his sister, Wordsworth
used the "Lucy poems" as an emotional outlet.[18 ]
Identity of Lucy[edit ]
Wordsworth did not reveal the inspiration for the character of Lucy, and over the years the topic has generated
intense speculation among literary historians.[19] Little biographical information can be drawn from the poemsit
is difficult even to determine Lucy's age.[20] In the mid-19th century, Thomas DeQuincey (17851859), author and
one-time friend of Wordsworth, wrote that the poet "always preserved a mysterious silence on the subject of that
'Lucy', repeatedly alluded to or apostrophised in his poems, and I have heard, from gossiping people about
Hawkshead, some snatches of tragic story, which, after all, might be an idle semi-fable, improved out of slight
materials."[21 ]
Critic Herbert Hartman believes Lucy's name was taken from "a neo-Arcadian commonplace", and argues she was
not intended to represent any single person.[22] In the view of one Wordsworth biographer, Mary Moorman
(19061994), "The identity of 'Lucy' has been the problem of critics for many years. But Wordsworth is a poet
before he is a biographer, and neither 'Lucy' nor her home nor his relations with her are necessarily in the strict
sense historical. Nevertheless, as the Lyrical Ballads were all of them 'founded on fact' in some way, and as
Wordsworth's mind was essentially factual, it would be rash to say that Lucy is entirely fictitious."[23 ]
Moorman suggests that Lucy may represent Wordsworth's romantic interest Mary Hutchinson,[A 2] but wonders
why she would be represented as one who died.[24] It is possible that Wordsworth was thinking of Margaret
Hutchinson, Mary's sister who had died.[25] There is no evidence, however, that the poet loved any of the
Hutchinsons other than Mary. It is more likely that Margaret's death influenced but is not the foundation for
Lucy.[26 ]
Half-length portrait of a woman wearing a frilly cap. She is in bed, with a book, her glasses, and her dog .

W. Crowbent, 1907, Portrait of Dorothy Wordsworth, depicting her later in life, (drawing from a photograph .)
In 1980, Hunter Davies contended that the series was written for the poet's sister Dorothy, but found the Lucy
Dorothy allusion "bizarre".[27] Earlier, literary critic Richard Matlak tried to explain the LucyDorothy connection,
and wrote that Dorothy represented a financial burden to Wordsworth, which had effectively forced his separation
from Coleridge.[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.[28] Throughout the poems, the
narrator's mixture of mourning and antipathy is accompanied by denial and guilt; his denial of the LucyDorothy
relationship and the lack of narratorial responsibility for the death of Lucy allow him to escape from questioning his
desires for the death of his sister.[29] After Wordsworth began the "Lucy poems", Coleridge wrote, "Some months
ago Wordsworth transmitted to me a most sublime Epitaph / whether it had any reality, I cannot say. Most
probably, in some gloomier moment he had fancied the moment in which his Sister might die."[30] It is, however,
possible that Wordsworth simply feared her death and did not wish it, even subconsciously.[31][A 3 ]
Reflecting on the significance and relevance of Lucy's identity, the 19th-century poet, essayist and literary critic
Frederic Myers (18431901) observed that :
here it was that the memory of some emotion prompted the lines on "Lucy". Of the history of that emotion, he has
told us nothing; I forbear, therefore, to inquire concerning it, or even to speculate. That it was to the poet's honour,
I do not doubt; but who ever learned such secrets rightly? or who should wish to learn? It is best to leave the
sanctuary of all hearts inviolate, and to respect the reserve not only of the living but of the dead. Of these poems,
almost alone, Wordsworth in his autobiographical notes has said nothing whatever.[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. 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."[33] Hartman holds
the same view; to him Lucy is seen "entirely from within the poet, so that this modality may be the poet's own",
but then he argues, "she belongs to the category of spirits who must still become human ... the poet describes her
as dying at a point at which she would have been humanized."[34] The literary historian Kenneth Johnston
concludes that Lucy was created as the personification of Wordsworth's muse, and the group as a whole "is a series
of invocations to a Muse feared dead. As epitaphs, they are not sad, a very inadequate word to describe them, but
breathlessly, almost aware of what such a loss would mean to the speaker: 'oh, the difference to me!'"[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."[36] Furthermore, she is represented as being insignificant in the public sphere but of the
utmost importance in the private sphere; in "She dwelt" this manifests through the comparison of Lucy to both a
hidden flower and a shining star.[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."[38 ]
The poems[edit ]

The "Lucy poems" are written from the point of view of a lover who has long viewed the object of his affection
from afar, and who is now affected by her death.[A 4] Yet Wordsworth structured the poems so that they are not
about any one person who has died; instead they were written about a figure representing the poet's lost
inspiration. Lucy is Wordsworth's inspiration, and the poems as a whole are, according to Wordsworth biographer
Kenneth Johnston, "invocations to a Muse feared dead".[39] Lucy is represented in all five poems as sexless; it is
unlikely that the poet ever realistically saw her as a possible lover. Instead, she is presented as an ideal[40] and
represents Wordsworth's frustration at his separation from Coleridge; the asexual imagery reflects the futility of his
longing.[40 ]
Wordsworth's voice slowly disappears from the poems as they progress, and his voice is entirely absent from the
fifth poem. His love operates on the subconscious level, and he relates to Lucy more as a spirit of nature than as a
human being.[41] The poet's grief is private, and he is unable to fully explain its source.[42] When Lucy's lover is
present, he is completely immersed in human interactions and the human aspects of nature, and the death of his
beloved is a total loss for the lover. The 20th-century critic Spencer Hall argues that the poet represents a "fragile
kind of humanism".[43 ]
" Strange fits of passion have I known"[edit ]
Main article: Strange fits of passion have I known
Wikisource has original text related to this article :
Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known
" Strange fits" is probably the earliest of the poems and revolves around a fantasy of Lucy's death. It describes the
narrator's journey to Lucy's cottage and his thoughts along the way. Throughout, the motion of the moon is set in
opposition to the motion of the speaker. The poem contains seven stanzas, a relatively elaborate structure which
underscores his ambivalent attitude towards Lucy's imagined death. The constant shifts in perspective and mood
reflect his conflicting emotions.[44] The first stanza, with its use of dramatic phrases such as "fits of passion" and
"dare to tell", contrasts with the subdued tone of the rest of the poem. As a lyrical ballad, "Strange fits" differs from
the traditional ballad form, which emphasises abnormal action, and instead focuses on mood.[45 ]
The presence of death is felt throughout the poem, although it is mentioned explicitly only in the final line. The
moon, a symbol of the beloved, sinks steadily as the poem progresses, until its abrupt drop in the penultimate
stanza. That the speaker links Lucy with the moon is clear, though his reasons are unclear.[45] The moon
nevertheless plays a significant role in the action of the poem: as the lover imagines the moon slowly sinking
behind Lucy's cottage, he is entranced by its motion. By the fifth stanza, the speaker has been lulled into a
somnambulistic trancehe sleeps while still keeping his eyes on the moon (lines 1720 .)
The narrator's conscious presence is wholly absent from the next stanza, which moves forward in what literary
theorist Geoffrey Hartman describes as a "motion approaching yet never quite attaining its end".[46] When the
moon abruptly drops behind the cottage, the narrator snaps out of his dream, and his thoughts turn towards death.
Lucy, the beloved, is united with the landscape in death, while the image of the retreating, entrancing moon is used
to portray the idea of looking beyond one's lover.[47] The darker possibility also remains that the dream state
represents the fulfilment of the lover's fantasy through the death of the beloved. In falling asleep while
approaching his beloved's home, the lover betrays his own reluctance to be with Lucy.[48 ]
Wordsworth made numerous revisions to each of the "Lucy poems".[49] The earliest version of "Strange fits"
appears in a December 1798 letter from Dorothy to Coleridge. This draft contains many differences in phrasing and
does not include a stanza that appeared in the final published version. 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.[50] Wordsworth also removed from the final stanza the lines :
I told her this; her laughter light
Is ringing in my ears ;
And when I think upon that night
My eyes are dim with tears.[51 ]
This final stanza lost its significance with the completion of the later poems in the series, and the revision allowed
for a sense of anticipation at the poem's close and helped draw the audience into the story of the remaining "Lucy
poems". Of the other changes, only the description of the horse's movement is important: "My horse trudg'd on"
becomes "With quickening pace my horse drew nigh", which heightens the narrator's vulnerability to fantasies and
dreams in the revised version.[48 ]
" She dwelt among the untrodden ways"[edit ]
Main article: She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Wikisource has original text related to this article :
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
" She dwelt among the untrodden ways" presents Lucy as having lived in solitude near the source of the River
Dove.[A 5] According to literary critic Geoffrey Durrant, the poem charts her "growth, perfection, and death".[52]
To convey the dignified, unaffected naturalness of his subject, Wordsworth uses simple language, mostly words of
one syllable. In the opening quatrain, he describes the isolated and untouched area where Lucy lived, as well as her
innocence and beauty, which he compares to that of a hidden flower in the second.[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. Literary scholar Mark Jones describes this effect as finding the
poem is "over before it has begun", while according to writer Margaret Oliphant (18281897), Lucy "is dead before
we so much as heard of her".[54 ]
Lucy's "untrodden ways" are symbolic of both her physical isolation and the unknown details of her thoughts and
life. The third quatrain is written with an economy intended to capture the simplicity the narrator sees in Lucy. Her
femininity is described in girlish terms. This has drawn criticism from those who see the female icon, in the words
of literary scholar John Woolford, "represented in Lucy by condemning her to death while denying her the actual or
symbolic fulfillment of maternity".[55] To evoke the "loveliness of body and spirit", a pair of complementary but
paradoxical images[53] are employed in the second stanza: the solitary, hidden violet juxtaposed to the publicly
visible Venus, emblem of love and first star of evening.[56] Wondering if Lucy more resembles the violet or the star,
the critic Cleanth Brooks (19061994) concludes that while Wordsworth likely views her as "the single star,
completely dominating [his] world, not arrogantly like the sun, but sweetly and modestly", the metaphor is a
conventional compliment with only vague relevance.[57] For Wordsworth, Lucy's appeal is closer to the violet and
lies in her seclusion and her perceived affinity with nature.[55 ]
Wordsworth acquired a copy of the antiquarian and churchman Thomas Percy's (17291811) collection of British
ballads Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) in Hamburg a few months before he began to compose the series.
The influence of the traditional English folk ballad is evident in the metre, rhythm and structure of "She dwelt". It
follows the variant ballad stanza a4b3a4b3,[58] and in keeping with ballad tradition tells a dramatic story. As
Durrant observed, "To confuse the mode of the 'Lucy' poems with that of the love lyric is to overlook their
structure, in which, as in the traditional ballad, a story is told as boldly and briefly as possible."[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 :
" Katharine Jaffray" "She dwelt "
There livd a lass in yonder dale ,
And doun in yonder glen, O .
And Katherine Jaffray was her name ,
Well known by many men, O.[59 ]

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove ,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love; (lines 14 )
The narrator of the poem is less concerned with the experience of observing Lucy than with his reflections and
meditations on his observations.[60] Throughout the poem sadness and ecstasy are intertwined, a fact emphasised
by the exclamation marks in the second and third verses. The critic Carl Woodring writes that "She dwelt" and the
Lucy series can be read as elegiac, as "sober meditation[s] on death". He found that they have "the economy and
the general air of epitaphs in the Greek Anthology... [I]f all elegies are mitigations of death, the Lucy poems are also
meditations on simple beauty, by distance made more sweet and by death preserved in distance".[61 ]
An early draft of "She dwelt" contained two stanzas which had been omitted from the first edition.[62] The
revisions exclude many of the images but emphasise the grief that the narrator experienced. The original version
began with floral imagery, which was later cut:[63 ]
My hope was one, from cities far ,
Nursed on a lonesome heath ;
Her lips were red as roses are ,
Her hair a woodbine wreath.[64 ]
A fourth stanza, also later removed, included an explanation of how Lucy was to die:[65] "But slow distemper
checked her bloom / And on the Heath she died."[64 ]
" I travelled among unknown men"[edit ]
Main article: I travelled among unknown men
Wikisource has original text related to this article :
I travelled among unknown men
The last of the "Lucy poems" to be composed, "I travelled among unknown men", was the only one not included in
the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. Although Wordsworth claimed that the poem was composed while he was still
in Germany, it was in fact written during April 1801.[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.[66] In 1802, he
instructed his printer to place "I travelled" immediately after "A slumber did my spirit seal" in Lyrical Ballads, but
the poem was omitted. It was later published in Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807.[67 ]
The poem has frequently been read as a declaration of Wordsworth's love for his native England[68] and his
determination not to live abroad again :
' Tis past, that melancholy dream !
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more. (lines 58 )
The first two stanzas seem to speak of the poet's personal experience,[69] and a patriotic reading would reflect his
appreciation and pride for the English landscape.[70] The possibility remains, however, that Wordsworth is
referring to England as a physical rather than a political entity, an interpretation that gains strength from the
poem's connections to the other "Lucy poems".[71 ]
Lucy only appears in the second half of the poem, where she is linked with the English landscape. As such, it seems
as if nature joins with the narrator in mourning for her, and the reader is drawn into this mutual sorrow.[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.[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.[23] Similarly, no insight can be gained from
determining the exact geographical location of the "springs of Dove"; in his youth, Wordsworth had visited springs
of that name in Derbyshire, Patterdale and Yorkshire.[23 ]
" Three years she grew in sun and shower"[edit ]
Main article: Three years she grew in sun and shower
Wikisource has original text related to this article :
Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower
" Three years she grew in sun and shower" was composed between 6 October and 28 December 1798. The poem
depicts the relationship between Lucy and nature through a complex opposition of images. Antithetical couplings
of words"sun and shower", "law and impulse", "earth and heaven", "kindle and restrain"are used to evoke the
opposing forces inherent in nature. A conflict between nature and humanity is described, as each attempts to
possess Lucy. The poem contains both epithalamic and elegiac characteristics; Lucy is shown as wedded to nature,
while her human lover is left alone to mourn in the knowledge that death has separated her from humanity.[73 ]
" A slumber did my spirit seal"[edit ]
Main article: A slumber did my spirit seal
Wikisource has original text related to this article :
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
Written in spare language, "A slumber did my spirit seal" consists of two stanzas, each four lines long. The first
stanza is built upon even, soporific movement in which figurative language conveys the nebulous image of a girl
who "seemed a thing that could not feel / The touch of earthly years". The second maintains the quiet and even
tone of the first but serves to undermine its sense of the eternal by revealing that Lucy has died and that the
calmness of the first stanza represents death. The narrator's response to her death lacks bitterness or emptiness;
instead he takes consolation from the fact that she is now beyond life's trials, and "at last ... in inanimate
community with the earth's natural fixtures".[74] The lifeless rocks and stones depicted in the concluding line
convey the finality of Lucy's death.[75 ]
Grouping as a series[edit ]

Although the "Lucy poems" share stylistic and thematic similarities, it was not Wordsworth but literary critics who
first presented the five poems as a unified set called the "Lucy poems". The grouping was originally suggested by
critic Thomas Powell in 1831 and later advocated by Margaret Oliphant in an 1871 essay. The 1861 Golden
Treasury, compiled by the English historian Francis Palgrave (17881861), groups only four of the verses, omitting
"Strange fits". The poems next appeared as a complete set of five in the collection of Wordsworth's poems by
English poet and critic Matthew Arnold (18221888).[76 ]
Head and shoulders of an elderly woman wearing a grey dress and a white cap, with her hair pulled back in a bun

Frederick Augustus Sandys (18291904), Margaret Oliphant, chalk, 1881. In 1875, she was one of the first
anthologists to group together the "Lucy poems ."
The grouping and sequence of the "Lucy poems" has been a matter of debate in literary circles. Various critics have
sought to add poems to the group; among those proposed over the years are "Alcaeus to Sappho", "Among all
lovely things", "Lucy Gray", "Surprised by joy", "Tis said, that some have died for love", "Louisa", "Nutting",
"Presentiments", "She was a Phantom of delight", "The Danish Boy", "The Two April Mornings", "To a Young Lady",
and "Written in Very Early Youth".[77] None of the proposals have met with widespread acceptance. The five
poems included in the Lucy "canon" focus on similar themes of nature, beauty, separation and loss, and most
follow the same basic ballad form. 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."[78 ]
With the exception of "A slumber", all of the poems mention Lucy by name. The decision to include this work is
based in part on Wordsworth's decision to place it in close proximity to "Strange fits" and directly after "She dwelt"
within Lyrical Ballads. In addition, "I travelled" was sent to the poet's childhood friend and later wife, Mary
Hutchinson, with a note that said it should be "read after 'She dwelt'".[16] Coleridge biographer J. Dykes Campbell
records that Wordsworth instructed "I travelled" to be included directly following "A slumber", an arrangement
that indicates a connection between the poems.[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.[80 ]
The 1815 edition of Lyrical Ballads organised the poems into the Poems Founded on the Affections ("Strange fits",
"She dwelt", and "I travelled") and Poems of the Imagination ("Three years she grew" and "A slumber"). This
arrangement allowed the two dream-based poems ("Strange fits" and "A slumber") to frame the series and to
represent the speaker's different sets of experiences over the course of the longer narrative.[81] In terms of
chronology, "I travelled" was written last, and thus also served as a symbolic conclusionboth emotionally and
thematicallyto the "Lucy poems".[82 ]
Interpretation[edit ]

The series is generally considered to examine two broad themes .
Nature[edit ]
According to critic Norman Lacey, Wordsworth built his reputation as a "poet of nature".[83] Early works, such as
"Tintern Abbey", can be viewed as odes to his experience of nature. His poems can also be seen as lyrical
meditations on the fundamental character of the natural world. Wordsworth said that, as a youth, nature stirred
"an appetite, a feeling and a love", but by the time he wrote Lyrical Ballads, it evoked "the still sad music of
humanity".[84 ]
The five "Lucy poems" are often interpreted as representing Wordsworth's opposing views of nature as well as
meditations on the cycle of life. They describe a variety of relationships between humanity and nature.[85] For
example, Lucy can be seen as a connection between humanity and nature, as a "boundary being, nature sprite and
human, yet not quite either. She reminds us of the traditional mythical person who lives, ontologically, an
intermediate life, or mediates various realms of existence."[34] Although the poems evoke a sense of loss, they also
hint at the completeness of Lucy's lifeshe was raised by nature and survives in the memories of others.[86] She
became, in the opinion of the American poet and writer David Ferry (b. 1924), "not so much a human being as a
sort of compendium of nature", while "her death was right, after all, for by dying she was one with the natural
processes that made her die, and fantastically ennobled thereby".[87 ]
Cleanth Brooks writes that "Strange fits" presents "Kind Nature's gentlest boon", "Three years" its duality, and "A
slumber" the clutter of natural object.[88] Other scholars see "She dwelt", along with "I travelled", as representing
nature's "rustication and disappearance".[85] Mahoney views "Three years" as describing a masculine, benevolent
nature similar to a creator deity. Although nature shapes Lucy over time and she is seen as part of nature herself,
the poem shifts abruptly when she dies. Lucy appears to be eternal, like nature itself.[89] Regardless, she becomes
part of the surrounding landscape in life, and her death only verifies this connection.[90 ]
The series presents nature as a force by turns benevolent and malign.[91] It is shown at times to be oblivious to and
uninterested in the safety of humanity.[92] Hall argues, "In all of these poems, nature would seem to betray the
heart that loves her".[93] The imagery used to evoke these notions serves to separate Lucy from everyday reality.
The literary theorist Frances Ferguson (b. 1947) notes that the "flower similes and metaphors become impediments
rather than aids to any imaginative visualization of a woman; the flowers do not simply locate themselves in Lucy's
cheeks, they expand to absorb the whole of her ... The act of describing seems to have lost touch with its goal
description of Lucy."[94 ]
Death[edit ]
The poems Wordsworth wrote while in Goslar focus on the dead and dying. The "Lucy poems" follow this trend,
and often fail to delineate the difference between life and death.[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.[97] They describe a rite of passage from innocent childhood to corrupted maturity
and, according to Hartman, "center on a death or a radical change of consciousness which is expressed in semi-
mythical form; and they are, in fact, Wordsworth's nearest approach to a personal myth."[98] The narrator is
affected greatly by Lucy's death and cries out in "She dwelt" of "the difference to me!". Yet in "A slumber" he is
spared from trauma by sleep.[99 ]
The reader's experience of Lucy is filtered through the narrator's perception.[100] Her death suggests that nature
can bring pain to all, even to those who loved her.[101] According to the British classical and literary scholar H. W.
Garrod (18781960), "The truth is, as I believe, that between Lucy's perfection in Nature and her death there is, for
Wordsworth, really no tragic antithesis at all."[102] Hartman expands on this view to extend the view of death and
nature to art in general: "Lucy, living, is clearly a guardian spirit, not of one place but of all English places ... while
Lucy, dead, has all nature for her monument. The series is a deeply humanized version of the death of Pan, a
lament on the decay of English natural feeling. 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 ]
Critical assessment[edit ]

The first mention of the poems came from Dorothy, in a letter sent to Coleridge in December 1798. Of "Strange
fits", she wrote, "[this] next poem is a favorite of minei.e. of me Dorothy".[104] The first recorded mention of
any of the "Lucy poems" (outside of notes by either William or Dorothy) occurred after the April 1799 death of
Coleridge's son Berkeley. Coleridge was then living in Germany, and received the news through a letter from his
friend Thomas Poole, who in his condolences mentioned Wordsworth's "A slumber :"
But I cannot truly say that I grieveI am perplexedI am sadand a little thing, a very trifle would make me weep;
but for the death of the Baby I have not wept!Oh! this strange, strange, strange Scene-shifter, Death! that giddies
one with insecurity, & so unsubstantiates the living Things that one has grasped and handled!/ Some months ago
Wordsworth transmitted to me a most sublime Epitaph / whether it had any reality, I cannot say.Most probably,
in some gloomier moment he had fancied the moment in which his sister might die.[105 ]
Three-quarter portrait of elderly man with a fringe of white hair around his head, looking down introspectively with
his arms crossed. He is wearing a brown suit and is set against a brown, blue, and purple background that is
reminiscent of rocks and clouds .

Benjamin Haydon, Wordsworth on Helvellyn, 1842
Later, the essayist Charles Lamb (17751834) wrote to Wordsworth in 1801 to say that "She dwelt" was one of his
favourites from Lyrical Ballads. Likewise Romantic poet John Keats (17951821) praised the poem. To the diarist
and writer Henry Crabb Robinson (17751867), "She dwelt" gave "the powerful effect of the loss of a very obscure
object upon one tenderly attached to itthe opposition between the apparent strength of the passion and the
insignificance of the object is delightfully conceived."[106 ]
Besides word of mouth and opinions in letters, there were only a few published contemporary reviews. The writer
and journalist John Stoddart (17731856), in a review of Lyrical Ballads, described "Strange fits" and "She dwelt" as
"the most singular specimens of unpretending, yet irresistible pathos".[107] An anonymous review of Poems in
Two Volumes in 1807 had a less positive opinion about "I travell'd": "Another string of flat lines about Lucy is
succeeded by an ode to Duty".[108] Critic Francis Jeffrey (17731850) claimed that, in "Strange fits", "Mr
Wordsworth, however, has thought fit to compose a piece, illustrating this copious subject by one single thought. 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! to myself I cried, / If Lucy should be dead!' And there the poem ends!"[109] On "A slumber did my spirit
seal", Wordsworth's friend Thomas Powell wrote that the poem "stands by itself, and is without title prefixed, yet
we are to know, from the penetration of Mr. Wordsworth's admirers, that it is a sequel to the other deep poems
that precede it, and is about one Lucy, who is dead. From the table of contents, however, we are informed by the
author that it is about 'A Slumber;' for this is the actual title which he has condescended to give it, to put us out of
pain as to what it is about."[110 ]
Many Victorian critics appreciated the emotion of the "Lucy poems" and focused on "Strange fits". John Wilson, a
personal friend of both Wordsworth and Coleridge, described the poem in 1842 as "powerfully pathetic".[111] In
1849, critic Rev. Francis Jacox, writing under the pseudonym "Parson Frank", remarked that "Strange fits"
contained "true pathos. We are moved to our soul's centre by sorrow expressed as that is; for, without periphrasis
or wordy anguish, without circumlocution of officious and obtrusive, and therefore, artificial grief; the mourner
gives sorrow words... But he does it in words as few as may be: how intense their beauty!"[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'".[113] Other reviewers emphasised the importance of "She dwelt among
the untrodden ways", including Scottish writer William Angus Knight (18361916), when he described the poem as
an "incomparable twelve lines".[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. He finds harmony rather than harshness in the contrast
between the illusion of love and the fact of death."[115] Later critics focused on the importance of the poems to
Wordsworth's poetic technique. Durrant argued that "The four 'Lucy' poems which appeared in the 1800 edition of
Lyrical Ballads are worth careful attention, because they represent the clearest examples of the success of
Wordsworth's experiment."[116] Alan Grob (19322007) focused less on the unity that the poems represent and
believed that "the principal importance of the 'Matthew' and 'Lucy' poems, apart from their intrinsic achievement,
substantial as that is, is in suggesting the presence of seeds of discontent even in a period of seemingly assured
faith that makes the sequence of developments in the history of Wordsworth's thought a more orderly, evolving
pattern than the chronological leaps between stages would seem to imply."[117 ]
Later critics de-emphasised the significance of the poems in Wordsworth's artistic development. Hunter Davies (b.
1936) concluded that their impact relies more on their popularity than importance to Wordsworth's poetic career.
Davies went on to claim, "The poems about Lucy are perhaps Wordsworth's best-known work which he did in
Germany, along with 'Nutting' and the Matthew poems, but the most important work was the beginning of The
Prelude" (emphasis in original).[27] Some critics emphasised the importance behind Lucy as a figure, including
Geoffrey Hartman (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."[103] Writer and poet Meena Alexander (b. 1951)
believed that the character of Lucy "is the impossible object of the poet's desire, an iconic representation of the
Romantic feminine."[118
Three years she grew "
The poem begins with the personified Nature noticing Lucy at three years old. Nature thinks she is the most
beautiful thing on earth, and promises to take her to make "A Lady of [her] own :"

Three years she grew in sun and shower ,
Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower
On earth was never sown ;
This Child I to myself will take ;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own .
Nature then expounds on what it means to be Nature's lady for several stanzas. Nature promises to make Lucy into
a part of nature itself. She will be a part of the rocks, the earth, the heaven, the glades, the mountain springs, the
clouds, the trees, and the storms. In addition, Lucy will fully enjoy nature and understand it. It will be as if they are
in constant communication :
Myself will to my darling be
Both law and impulse: and with me
The Girl, in rock and plain ,
In earth and heaven, in glade and bower ,
Shall feel an overseeing power
To kindle or restrain .

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn ,
Or up the mountain springs ;
And her's shall be the breathing balm ,
And her's the silence and the calm
Of mute insensate things .

The floating clouds their state shall lend
To her; for her the willow bend ;
Nor shall she fail to see
Even in the motions of the Storm
Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form
By silent sympathy .

The stars of midnight shall be dear
To her; and she shall lean her ear
In many a secret place
Where rivulets dance their wayward round ,
And beauty born of murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face .

And vital feelings of delight
Shall rear her form to stately height ,
Her virgin bosom swell ;
Such thoughts to Lucy I will give
While she and I together live
Here in this happy dell .
In the last stanza Nature declares that her work is done: she has fulfilled her promise to Lucy, letting her grow into
a mature woman (as promised in the sixth stanza). The speaker declares, "How soon my Lucy's race was run!"
When she dies, she leaves the speaker a calm scene to enjoy along with the beautiful memory of her :
Thus Nature spake--The work was done --
How soon my Lucy's race was run !
She died, and left to me
This heath, this calm, and quiet scene ;
The memory of what has been ,
And never more will be .
Analysis
" Three years she grew" is made up of seven six-line stanzas that each have an aabccb rhyme scheme. This poem is
one of a set usually called the "Lucy Poems." The identity of Lucy has never been discovered .
Nature takes on an interesting role in this poem--she is beautiful and giving, and yet ultimately dictates the
circumstances of Lucy's death. The poem becomes a beautiful elegy written to a woman who has died and who
Wordsworth admired not only for her beauty, but also for her connection to nature, which Wordsworth felt was
the highest possible achievement .
Also worthy of note is the fact that the speaker does not speak until the final stanza. For the first six stanzas he
simply describes the declarations and promises of Nature. It is only in the end that the reader finally learns what
happened to Lucy (she died as soon as she reached maturity) and why the speaker is writing the poem (out of grief
A slumber did my spirit seal "
In the first of the poem's two stanzas, the speaker declares that a "slumber" has kept him from realizing reality. In
essence, he has been in a dream-like state, devoid of any common fears ("human fears"). To the speaker, "she" (his
unnamed female love) seemed like she would never age :

A slumber did my spirit seal ;
I had no human fears :
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years .
In the second and final stanza, however, we learn that she has died. She lies still and can no longer see or hear. She
has become a part of the day-to-day course of the earth :
No motion has she now, no force :
She neither hears nor sees ,
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees .
Analysis :
" A slumber did my spirit seal" is one of Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems," which focus primarily on the death of a young
woman named Lucy (though she remains unnamed in this poem). Many scholars and literary historians have
offered theories as to who Lucy was, but her true identity remains a mystery .
The poem is comprised of only two four-line stanzas, and yet a great deal happens in this narrow space. We see the
speaker's realization not only that this young woman has died, but also that bad things can happen in a beautiful
world. In the first stanza the speaker is innocently unaware that age can touch the woman, but he is quickly taught
a harsh lesson when she dies between stanzas one and two. The choice to hide the death between the stanzas is
interesting, as it seems to imply that the speaker is unable to verbalize the pain that goes along with the sudden
loss .
On the other hand, the poem may be less about the speaker's innocence than about his belief in the young
woman's power. Indeed, he seems to have built her up in his mind into a goddess, untouched by age and mortality.
This desire to keep her perpetually young is a testament to the speaker's feelings for the young woman .
In the second stanza Wordsworth offers an eerie description of the woman's current situation. She is blind and
deaf--wholly incapable of taking in the world around her. This is a particularly painful idea in a Wordsworth poem,
because he is generally so focused on experiencing the senses. The speaker also mentions that she is now without
motion or force. This, of course, is true of all dead people, but by stating the obvious the speaker helps the reader
to imagine the way the young woman once was: full of life and vigor .
In the last two lines the speaker describes the young woman trapped beneath the surface of the earth. In fact, she
has become a part of the earth, rolling with it as it turns day to day. The very last line of the poem is especially
interesting, because the speaker lists both rocks and stones, which are essentially the same. It may be that he
intends to reference both gravestones and common rocks. Alternatively, the speaker may intend to emphasize the
"dead" things of the earth over living things like trees (which are mentioned only once .)
" A slumber did my spirit seal" is a ballad, though a very short one. The stanzas follow an abab rhyme scheme, and
the first and third lines are in iambic tetrameter, while the second and forth lines are in iambic trimester

. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucy_poems

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