Right from the title, the reader can understand that the main character of this poem is a mysterious and unidentified woman who lived in untrodden and unknown ways. So the theme of the poem may be like shruded in a mist.

The poem is simply a description of a girl who didn't know many people, indeed se had very few person to love. She lived among untrodden ways beside the springs of Dove. She is a very pretty woman, and the poet compare her to a violet, which is beautiful, but half-hidden by a mossy stone, so the eye can hardly see it. Moreover, the poet compare the mysterious woman to a star, who is fair only if it's the only shining in the sky. The poet sums up the story describing the death of this woman, whose name is Lucy, who lived unknown and now only him feels the sorrow about her death; indeed, he says that she ceased to be, and this made a great difference in poet's existence.

The text is arranged into three quatrains, each one playing a definite function in the economy of the poem. The first quatrain introduces the setting and the condition of the woman, the second one expresses the poet's comparisons, to end up with the poet's regret for the death of Lucy, who he misses.