The Lucy Poems by William Wordsworth. || Text | Summary | Notes

The Lucy Poems

                             .......William Wordsworth.....

         The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworth's first major publication and a milestone in the early English Romantic movement. In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing and death.
        The poems were written during a short period while the poet lived in Germany. Although they individually deal with a variety of themes, as a series they focus on the poet's longing for the company of his friend Coleridge, who had stayed in England, and on his increasing impatience with his sister Dorothy, who had travelled with him abroad. Wordsworth examines the poet's unrequited love for the idealised character of Lucy, an English girl who has died young. The idea of her death weighs heavily on the poet throughout the series, imbuing it with a melancholic, elegiac tone. Whether Lucy was based on a real woman or was a figment of the poet's imagination has long been a matter of debate among scholars. Generally reticent about the poems, Wordsworth never revealed the details of her origin or identity. Some scholars speculate that Lucy is based on his sister Dorothy, while others see her as a fictitious or hybrid character. Most critics agree that she is essentially a literary device upon whom he could project, meditate and reflect.


Lucy Poems consists of five poems.

The first four of the Lucy Poems were published in the "Lyrical Ballad" . And the last was published in poems - "Two Volumes".

 1. A Slumber did my spirit seal.

 2. She dwelt among untrodden ways.

 3. Strange fits of passion have I known.

 4. Three years she grew in sim and summer.

 5. I travelled among Unknown men.



Who was Lucy?

   It is still controversial as many critics assume Lucy to be Annette Vallon ( Wordsworth's French mistress). And others says Lucy is Peggy Hutchinson, the sister of Mary who was to become Wordsworth's wife. Another group suggest that Lucy was his sister Dorothy.

1.  A Slumber did my Spiriearths'

A slumber did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;

She neither hears nor sees;

Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,

With rocks, and stones, and trees.

2.  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

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;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

3.  Strange Fits Of Passion Have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known:

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover's ear alone,

What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening-moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot;

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy's cot

Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And all the while my eyes I kept

On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

"O mercy!" to myself I cried,

"If Lucy should be dead!"

4.  I Travelled among Unknown Men

I travelled among unknown men,

In lands beyond the sea;

Nor, England! did I know till then

What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!

Nor will I quit thy shore

A second time; for still I seem

To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,

The bowers where Lucy played;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

5.  Three Years She Grew In Sun and Summer

Three years she grew in sun and shower,

Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower

On earth was never sown;

This Child I to myself will take;

She shall be mine, and I will make

A Lady of my own.

"Myself will to my darling be

Both law and impulse: and with me

The Girl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,

Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain.

"She shall be sportive as the fawn

That wild with glee across the lawn

Or up the mountain springs;

And hers shall be the breathing balm,

And hers the silence and the calm

Of mute insensate things.

"The floating clouds their state shall lend

To her; for her the willow bend;

Nor shall she fail to see

Even in the motions of the Storm

Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form

By silent sympathy.

"The stars of midnight shall be dear

To her; and she shall lean her ear

In many a secret place

Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

And beauty born of murmuring sound

Shall pass into her face.

"And vital feelings of delight

Shall rear her form to stately height,

Her virgin bosom swell;

Such thoughts to Lucy I will give

While she and I together live

Here in this happy dell."

Thus Nature spake—The work was done—

How soon my Lucy's race was run!

She died, and left to me

This heath, this calm and quiet scene;

The memory of what has been,

And never more will be.

QUESTIONS:

1. The main theme of Lucy Poems is?

2. "A sumber did my spirit seal" - slumber means?

3. "A sumber did my spirit seal" - here the word 'seal' means?

4. "A sumber did my spirit seal" - what has induced slumber in the poets heart?

5. "I had no human fears"- why the poet had no human fears?

6. "She seemed..../...Touch the earthly years"-what does the poet mean by?

7. "She neither hears nor sees"- why can she not hear or see?

8. "Rolled round the earth's diurnal course"- here diurnal course means?

9. "She Dwelt among the untrodden ways"- why are the ways untrodden?

10. "Beside the springs of Dove" -what is Dove?

11. "A maid there were none to praise"- here the maid refers to?

12. "Fair as a star, when only one"- who is fare as a star?

13. "I too her cottage bent my way"- here bent means?

14. "All over the wide lea"- here the word lea means?

15.  " Did I know till then"- what did the poet not know till then?

16. "What love I bore to thee"- here thee refers to?

17. " Thy morning shower ,thy nights concealed "- what is shown and concealed to the poet?

18. "Three years she grew in sun and summer" -here she refers to?

19. "She shall be sportive as a fawn"- here fawn means?

20. " The work was done"- what work is reffered to here?

21. " How soon lucys race was run"- the poet means to say?





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