SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS: ANALYSIS

Starting from the title, it is possible to assume that the poem is going to explain some aspects about a girl who has probably played an important role in the poet’s life.

Apart from that, she surely didn’t live among attended roads, but instead somewhere off the beaten track: the reader is brought to imagine a place in the unpolluted countryside where this lady, who seems to be as beautiful as this unknown location, lived. The reason why the writer chose to specify that these ways are not known could be that he wanted to give the reader an almost idealistic image of the beauty of both the girl and the place.

The text is comprised of three stanzas, each one made up of four lines (which means they are quatrains) of different length.

In the first stanza the poet describes the girl’s characteristics in relation to her surroundings, which were apparently rural. As a matter of fact, she knew only her loved ones, so the reader is led to imagine a person who belongs to a very modest environment.

In the second stanza the writer is talking about the girl’s beauty, which is not immediately visible but, nevertheless, as fair as a star which is the only one in the sky: it means it’s really precious and pure as well. The reader is here invited to appreciate her beauty even if she’s not apparent.

The last stanza regards instead the importance that the girl had to the poet, which seems to be very big. He proved for sure a deep love for this woman, which eventually ended with her death, causing a consequent feeling of emptiness inside the writer’s heart.

Every quatrain has a rhyming couplet, which means rhymes follow the scheme ABAB (1^st stanza), CDCD (2^nd stanza), EFEF (3^rd stanza).

Also, we can find an alliteration of the “s” in the last line of second stanza, which helps to create an atmosphere of uniqueness in relationship with the girl.

It is possible to find an assonance in line 7 (“fair as a star”) of the “r” that gives the idea of the splendour of a star shining alone up in the sky.

To conclude, Wordsworth chose a very simple language and this is due to the simplicity of both Lucy’s life and her own personality.