“A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden by the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky”
Tennyson by contrast doesn’t resort to metaphors to describe his friend. All Tennyson’s descriptions are emotive, “Dark house, by which once more I stand Here in the long unlovely street…And ghastly through the drizzling rain On the bald street breaks the blank day.” he sets the depressing atmosphere and scenery to symbolise his feelings; the dark house indicating how miserable he is, the unlovely street and the rain are metaphors for his depressing and gloomy position. Instead of describing his friend he explains the physical contact that he has now lost with this person, “A hand that can be clasped no more”. Wordsworth on the other hand doesn’t describe any physical contact with Lucy.
Tennyson dwells a lot through out the poem on his emotions whereas Wordsworth’s feelings are less apparent. The only obvious mention of Wordsworth’s feelings is in the last line, “The difference to me!” he states that because she is now gone, it has brought about a significant change in his life which, gives a very vague idea of their relationship. His emotions are subdued and as if he is keeping something under the surface. Tennyson on the other hand shows undoubtedly how focused he is on his own tensions and feelings especially when he describes his action of standing outside the door of his friends house, “And like a guilty thing I creep At earliest morning to the door”, he is so obsessed and dwells on his feelings so much that he stands outside the house of the person he lost. He even knows himself that he is too obsessed “guilty thing I creep”, he acts furtively and knows he is guilty. Wordsworth makes the reader unsure of his feelings for Lucy as they are not obvious and their relationship is not specified whereas with Tennyson, one does learn that his relationship must have been very close for sure as he his so obsessed with their departure.
Both poems inform the reader that because this certain somebody has gone, their life is empty and they have experienced a change in their own lives. Wordsworth says this directly, “But she is in her grave and oh, the difference to me!”. Tennyson again states this metaphorically via the description of the setting “He is not here but far away… On the bald street breaks the blank day.” The blank day indicating that his life is now empty.
The poems are quite solemn and have a negative underlying tone. This is shown by the forms of the poems. Wordsworth’s poem resembles a ballad: in each stanza there are four regular stresses on the first and third line and 3 regular stresses on the second and fourth line. In addition, the majority of the words used are monosyllabic, “A maid whom there were none to praise,” sounding in a steady beat which reflects Lucy’s simple, regular lifestyle. This makes the poem flow smoothly giving a calm atmosphere. However instead of the standard one pair of rhymes that a ballad has, Wordsworth has made it two, resulting in two pauses and is therefore less of a narrative poem and more of a description then a sequence of actions like Tennyson’s poem. In comparison, the basic meter in Tennyson’s poem is iambic tetrameter with irregular stresses such as the two long stresses at the beginning, “Dark house,” resulting in a slower and heavy atmosphere which portrays how he feels. He also uses enjambment rather then pauses at the end of each line like Wordsworth, as he is narrating his actions and again producing a gloomy effect.
To conclude, the poems have their similarities but the main difference is how the emotions are portrayed –Tennyson’s furtive behaviour as well as the morbid surroundings and Wordsworth’s subtle description of Lucy and her life. In the end it is clear that they both feel that they have lost someone important and it has made a difference to their lives.
