William Wordsworth's She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways is poem with 12 lines, with characteristics of an elegy and a ballad.
Right from the title we can understand that the poem is about a living being, becouse the pronuoun "She" underlines that the subject is a person, a woman.
The poem is divided into two parts, the first is half of the second one. We can also note that are present many ejambements to make the lines quicker.
In the first stanza the phrase ‘beside the springs of Dove' gives us an image of an remote area closer to nature. It also tells us that she lived in isolation and solitude. The reason for this however is not clear; maybe she chose to live there. Metaphorically, it could be referring to the deeper aspects of her life, such as what she did or who she was. If we look closely at the sounds in the first stanza, we see that the first set of words ‘She dwelt among the' create very soft sounds possibly indicating what the persona thought about her or her grace and beauty. Immediately after these, the word ‘untrodden' has a very rough and ‘stiff' sound, telling us that her way of life was not quite normal. The poet makes use of the word ‘among' rather than ‘by'. The lines ‘A Maid whom there were none to praise and very few to love' tells us that she wasn't appreciated by nobody and very few people loved her. This could be because of the fact that she lived a life of isolation and in solitude; away from the cities and towns, near the river Dove. The stanza ends with a comma, here the poet wants to break the rhythm of reading.

The second part begins with a metaphore, the poet compares the girl to the half hidden violet to emphasize her solitude, then there's a comparison to the lonely star for her beauty of soul and body. The use of the word ‘violet' gives us an image of something very special; telling us that he considered her very beautiful and special. The poet refers to her as ‘a violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye!'; this could mean that most people didn't appreciate her . For the poet however, Lucy was special and he was the only one who could see how beautiful she really was.
The line ‘Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky' shows what he thinks about her she holds special meaning as she ‘dominates' his world, but in a gentle way. It could also imply the fact that she was the only girl loved with no equal. The star is a symbolical way to present the personality of the girl.

Finally the poet talkes about Lucy's death and the impact it had on his life. The poet mentions that she lived ‘unknown and few could know' when she died. The use of the word ‘unknown' tells us once again that Lucy lived in solitude and no one could see the real her and no one cared to know about her and her death. The phrase ‘the difference to me!' clearly indicates that Lucy's death had a strong impact on the poet. Lucy was probably his one and only love and now that she is gone, he feels lonely.
The poet has used, also, simple, everyday words, with short sentences, but is still able to create a very powerful and meaningful piece that truly reflects his feelings and portrays a huge sense of loss.



Annalisa Pez