Text analysis: “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”

In the present text I am going to analyze “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, a poem written by William Wordsworth, in order to discover the message and make my personal consideration after a careful analysis of the poem.

The title makes the reader suppose that the poem is about a female character who lived in a remote place. It leads to wonder why she resided there and who is “she”, in this way the reader is curious to go on reading to find out more about the girl.
Moreover the reader understands that the language used is archaic, since the verb “dwelt” is not very common in everyday language.

The ballad is arranged into three quatrains with lines of different length and each stanza has a different function.
The first stanza is an introduction: it consists in the description of the area where the girl lived, a rural place near the “spring of Dove”. As a result of this isolation she never received much attention or love.
In the second stanza the poet expresses the beauty of the woman by using a metaphor and a simile, which are both positive.
At the end the reader discovers that the girl’s name was Lucy and that she has died. In the last two lines her significance to Wordsworth is made very clear with the exclamation “oh”. The poet experiences a great suffering and sense of loss at her death.

Moving now on with a more detailed connotative analysis, the reader will soon realize that the ballad follows a cyclical pattern: the girl is presented as a mysterious character (her identity is unknown) while on the last stanza the reader discovers her name and that she has died. This contributes to enhance the reader’s curiosity and it conveys suspense and dramatic intensity.
The text is sliding: that is achieved thanks to the presence of enjambement and of the regular rhyme scheme (ABAB). Moreover the language used is simple, with many words linked to the semantic area of nature and loneliness, which create a melancholy effect. At the same time also the frequent use of exclamation marks helps to convey emotion to the poem.
Concentrating now on the figures of speech there are a metaphor and a simile, the first referring to a flower and the other to a star. As the violet, hidden by the mossy stone, Lucy was very beautiful but too shy to make herself visible. The second one symbolizes that the girl’s beauty was unique as a solitary star.

In conclusion the message given by the poet is the importance of what is undervalued by the masses. Moreover I suppose that the poet was in love with the girl but he didn’t have the courage to act and he lost his opportunity since the girl has died.