SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS 

To beginning, the title contains two unusual words: “dwelt” and “untrodden” that are both archaic words.

“Untrodden” is the way somebody lives in a hidden and “dwelt” is an archaic form “to live”. 

So the title let the intelligent reader thinks about something happened in the past.

As reguards the structure of the text, the reader can see that the writer wrote the poem in three stanzas, indead from the lyout the reader could understand that this poem is a ballad.

The ballad is simple and clear, so it is addressed to the common people.

In this poem, there is a speaking voice who says that there is a young lady who lived in a distant place, near the springs of Dove. Only few people knew her, she was not priced. 

The function of the first stanza is to introduce the girl from an external point of view and to introduce the setting.

On the other hand, in the second stanza, the speaking voice gives his judgment about this girl; indeed, he compares her to a violet who lived among the stones and so you could hardly see it.

Moreover, the speaking voice tells to the readers that she was very nice looking that she reminded a star.

So, the poet tries to say that the lady’s beauty is similiar to a star’s beauty, when only one is shining in the sky. To conclude that the second stanza’s use is to give to a reader a positive idea to the girl through the explenation of her personality that made her very precious.

To the end, in the last stanza, the speaking voice tells to the reader that only few people had the opportunity to knew her, and when Lucy (the lady) died, made a great difference for the poet.

From the poet the reader can understands that he has a very positive opinion about Lucy and he misses her, because he fells a great difference now that she’s gone. 

As reguards phonological language, the poem presents some assonances, allitterations and soud divice. The ballad is mostly organised in alternative rhymes. 

The fifth stanza (“a violet by a mossy stone”) explain something: the retoric speech is a metaphor and captures the reader’s attention. 

Instead the speech: “fair as a stair” is a simile, in fact the speaking voice describes her like a star. Then the poet sais: “when only one is shining in the sky”; this means that the girl is the only girl that the poet wanted. Moreover, the word “only” make the girl precious.

The speaking voice says that only few people knew Lucy, so when she died, she didn’t make the difference for many people, but only for few people and mostly for the poet.

This means that the poet misses her and his life changed when Lucy died; with this ballad he would remember her and make her know to the people who have not had the opportunity to know her when she was alive.