"SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS"

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 5
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; 10
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

William Wordsworth - 1799.

Analysis

The title immediately draws the reader's attention due to the use of two difficult and remote words: “dwelt” and “untrodden”. This might mean the poem was written a long time ago or this might be just a choice of the writer to draw the attention of the reader on the language itself. “Dwelt” is a simple past so the text refers to the past. “Dwelt” means “live” and “untrodden” means “inaccessible” or “difficult to reach”. The word untrodden is composed of the prefix “un-” and the word “trodden” which means “hidden”. The two words are not only remote and difficult: they are the longest in the title.
The text seems to refer to a “she”: this might means the “she” is an old lady, a young girl or an innocent child. The reader don't know yet and might be interested to find out. In addition he should be curios to know why the “she” lives (or had chosen to live) in hidden places. The textual analysis could also unveil the reason why the poet has written a poem about her.

The text is organized into three stanzas and each stanza is a quatrain. The reader can make an hypothesis about the type of poem: the text seems to be a ballad. This hypothesis creates an expectation in the reader: ballads were written to be sung so they were easy poems that anyone could remember. This supposed simplicity leads to a consideration about the poem. If it was not written a long time ago the difficult words in the title would contrast with the simplicity of a ballad. The ballad genre could employ two kinds of narrator: the first person narrator or the third person narrator. In this case the poem is written in the third person: it's not the “she” who's speaking.

The poem deals with a lady, called Lucy. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB CDCD EFEF: there are alternating rhymes. This type of rhyme gives rhythm and musicality to the poem.

The first quatrain deals with the introduction of the character (the writer still don't tell her name). The title is repeated as the first line so the reader wants to know more about who is “she” and where does she lives. The writer immediately answers one question because the setting is quite accurate: she leaves at the source of river Dove. Even if the reader does not know where the river Dove is, he can understand that the “she” lives up into the mountains, where the sources of rivers are. This is a very natural scenery, far from all the people. The reader discovers that the “she” lives alone. This is a sad discover: is the poet writing about her because he knows she's all alone? The reader still cannot answer this question, but the poet provably knows well the “she”, because he uses the capital letter in “Maid”. The word “maid” refers to a young woman who is not married. This might mean there is a sort of relationship between the narrator and the “she”.

The second quatrain is dedicated to two metaphors: the Maid is like a semi-covered violet, or like a lonely star. These metaphors confirm two previous hypothesis: the “she” is alone (“when only one
Is shining in the sky”), and the narrator knows her. In fact she is told to be beautiful like a star or like a flower so the narrator must know her. The fact that she's alone seems to increase his beauty: the star is fair when it's the only shining in the sky. The “she” is a rarity, difficult to reach, all alone but, for these reasons, beauty and unique. The poet is one of the few ones of the first stanza who know her. These clues increase the reader's expectation because they don't show off who the Maid really is.

The last quatrain is the conclusion of the poem and of the life of the Maid. The reader finally knows her name: Lucy. The reader was waiting for the name of the Maid since he read the title. The narrator confirms the loneliness of Lucy: “She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be”. Because of his distant and hidden dwelling her life was not full of people and she died as lonely as she lived. The ending of the poem is the answer of one of reader's questions: why the poet has written a poem about the “she”. Telling that none cares about her death but adding “The difference to me!” the reader is finally confirming the hypothesis the reader made: the poet do knew her. It's not unveiled why she decided to live hidden and alone but it is now known for sure that the poet appreciated her. The word “oh” at line 11 is an onomatopoeic exclamation of the poet that is suffering for her death.

The whole ballad seems to be a sad story of a lady who lived alone and died alone, bringing sadness to the narrator who was one of those who knew her. Maybe she was a really important person for the narrator. Her denotation (the metaphors), in fact, seems to show a deep relationship between the reader and Lucy. The simplicity of the story and of the text of the poem suit with the type of the poem: everybody could keep on mind this story.

The most important message of the poem is that even if you live alone and far from everyone you can be a good person, moreover the best persons are often hidden and difficult to reach.