Text analysis – “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”

I am going to analyse William Wordsworth’s poem “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, in order to find out the poet’s message as well as make my own observations.

The title invites curiosity about the identity of the “She”, but it also makes the reader reflect upon the “untrodden ways”: how are they like, and why does she live there, isolated from the others? Looking at the terms used in the title we could notice an archaic and refined use of the language, which contributes creating a sense of undefined and remote.

Looking at the layout, the text is arranged into three quatrains consisting in lines of different length with an alternate rhyme. Each stanza has its own role aimed at the presentation of the girl.

The  first stanza introduces the figure of the lady the poet wrote about: he describes her as “a Maid” who lives in Scotland, “Beside the springs of Dove”, isolated and hidden from the crowd, surrounded by nature.

In the second stanza there is a comparison with elements from the rural world in order to describe the girl’s beauty, even if nothing is reported about her identity; the poet gives a fully positive imagine of the lady, whose beauty appears to be unique.

The last quatrain deals with the premature passing of the maid, whose identity is now revealed, satisfying the reader’s curiosity: her name was Lucy, and her death made a great difference to the poet.

As regard the connotative analysis, the text presents a simple language, but there is a peculiar “echo effect” that permeates the poem in order to display the poet’s emotions and feeling linked to his memory of the girl. Enjambments contribute to create a sense of fluency, making the text’s musicality comparable to a ballad. It is also evident an use of exclamations marks, since they are used in key positions, and they contribute to give the text an emotive characterisation. Recurring is the use of long valued sounds, which helps to create the idea of a distant, undefined place where Lucy lives, isolated from the world. The intelligent reader will realise that this is a poetic device that makes the poem’s story more mysterious and curios to the reader. Another element of mystery regards the identity of the girl: her name is revealed only in the last stanza, so the reader is encouraged to continue the reading to satisfy his curiosity. The intelligent reader could realise, making an etymological resource, that the name Lucy implies the word “light”, so it is possible that the name itself represents an evidence of the meaning she had for the poet.  

It is made a large use of metaphors and words from the rural world (violet, mossy stone, star...), mostly used as terms of comparison to describe Lucy, but it is also possible to identify words whose purpose is to create a vivid and melancholy imagery strictly connected with the themes of the poem, isolation and death.

The message conveyed by the poet is probably that time flies, and we can do nothing but act passionately without being scared of loving someone. The poem, obviously, has a great emotional power which makes the reader feel the same pain and desolation of a man who lost his love.