She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

“The Preface to The Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth (1800)

This essay is considered the guidebook to the Romantic aesthetic movement. Wordsworth discusses the necessity of making poetry more accessible and details what he considers to be essential to the writing of good poetry. This includes using common situations and people as subjects, using everyday diction, and writing true expression of feeling. Calling poetry “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” that “takes its origin from emotion, recollected in tranquility,” he argues that the role of the poet is to be “the rock of defence for human nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying everywhere with him relationship and love.” These ideals are echoed in the lovelorn subject matter and simple language of “She dwelt among the untrodden ways.”

William Wordsworth: A Biography, The Early Years 1770-1803 by Mary Moorman (1957)

This remains a key exploration of the early years of William Wordsworth’s life as a poet. Moorman is often quoted by other critics in regard to the Lucy series, which she details extensively in the fourth chapter of this book. Moorman discusses extensively Wordsworth’s travels to Germany and his composition of the individual Lucy poems, including “She dwelt among the untrodden ways.” She also explains the history of the various speculations regarding Lucy’s identity.

“The ‘Lucy’ Poems: Poetry of Mourning” by Pamela Woof (1999)

Woof’s academic article compares “Lucy Gray” to the Lucy poems. She points out that the speaker of “Lucy Gray” is more concerned with narrative, while the Lucy lyrics show more personal involvement as the speaker plays “the role of lover, writing soliloquy or monologue” (31). However, like “Lucy Gray,” the Lucy poems have elements of the supernatural. Woof discusses the violet imagery in “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” reading it alongside Shakespeare’s Ophelia; she also notes the speaker’s handling of grief and Lucy’s connection to nature.