She dwelt among the untrodden ways-Analysis

The capitalization of the letter ‘M’ in the word ‘Maid’ as well as the use of the word ‘She’ in the first line also holds a lot of meaning. The poet is trying to give an improper noun the qualities of a proper noun as he avoids giving the name of this lady. This could mean that he saw deeper into her than others and chose not to refer to by her name as everyone else referred to her this way. This also tells us that the poet had fairly close relations with ‘Lucy’ and hence was able to see the ‘true her’.  

In the second stanza, the poet makes use of simile and juxtaposition as he describes the fair maiden. She is compared to the half hidden violet and the lonely star to emphasize her solitude and obscurity as well as her beauty of soul and body. The use of the word ‘violet’ gives us an image of something very ‘special’ and elegant; telling us that the persona did consider her to be very beautiful and special. The poet refers to her as ‘a violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye!’; this could mean that most people didn’t appreciate her or praise her; and despite the fact that they could see her, chose to ignore her possibly because she was shy or was not accepted by the society and took her as the mossy stone, but the persona saw beyond what they could see and hence realized her true beauty, past her physical appearance and into her soul. The very fact that a violet is placed by a mossy stone means that people will fail to notice the beauty of the violet as it will be overshadowed by the sliminess of the mossy stone. To the persona however, Lucy was special and he was the only one who could see how beautiful she really was.  

Another interesting possibility is that maybe despite the fact that the persona loved Lucy so much, she got married to another man. Then the phrase ‘a violet beside a mossy stone’ will make more sense; as the poet still loves Lucy just as much and hence compares her to the violet, but looks down upon her husband and compares him to a ‘mossy stone’. As we know, a mossy stone is very slimy and possibly the poet considers Lucy’s husband to be no more that slime.

The line ‘Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky’ shows what the persona thinks about her and this could imply that to him, she is a bright star shining in the dark black sky, which could be a metaphor for his life and the line could mean that to him, she holds special meaning as she ‘dominates’ his world, but not in a powerful and forceful manner as the sun, but in a very gentle and modest way and possibly that’s why the persona was able to appreciate her true beauty. It could also imply the fact that she was the only one the persona loved with no equal hence the ‘only one star in the sky’. It is also interesting to note that the ‘star’ could also be referring to Venus as sometimes it is the only one that can be seen in the sky since it is the brightest. This also shows that Lucy was indeed a special person for the persona as we know that Venus is the brightest of all and its light can reach us even when the other stars cannot be seen.

In the last stanza, we are told of Lucy’s death and the impact it had on the persona. The poet mentions that she lived ‘unknown and few could know’ when she passed away. The use of the word ‘unknown’ tells us once again that Lucy lived in solitude and no one could see the real her and hence no one cared to know about her or her death as it probably did not make any difference to their lives. He makes use of euphemism as he says ‘ceased to be’ instead of ‘Died’ which would be a very ‘cold’ way of putting it. Instead, he uses euphemism to say the same thing, but in a much more polite manner. This again brings in a ‘personal’ touch and depicts the persona’s feelings about Lucy. Lucy’s death seems to be unknown to all as it did not affect their lives in any way, but the persona was deeply affected as he was the only one who knew. His grief is emphasized by the use of the ‘oh’ which shows a sudden burst of bereavement that he was holding on to throughout the poem but failed to control it at this stage and hence expressed it effectively by the use of the word ‘oh’. The phrase ‘the difference to me!’ clearly indicates that Lucy’s death had a strong impact on the persona as Lucy was probably his one and only love and now that she is gone, he is in depression and fells lonely. It is also interesting to note that this is the only place where he uses Lucy’s name to refer to her. This could be a sign of respect and remembrance of his love.

If we look further into the last stanza and analyze it on a metaphorical level, Lucy’s death may not be referring to her demise but rather (in connection to what was mentioned earlier in stanza two) to the fact that she got married to another man when the persona loved her so passionately. The fact that the poet mentions that ‘she lived unknown and few could know’ when Lucy died and the use of the phrase ‘but she is in her grave’ gives a very strong possibility that he was a ‘secret admirer’ or that not many people knew about their relationship and that was the reason why she lived ‘unknown’ and hence when Lucy got married, she practically ‘died’ for the persona, yet no one else could know. The phrase ‘the difference to me’ also tells us that since only the persona knew about Lucy’s ‘death’ and no one else knew about their relationship, he was the only one affected and hence depressed by this.

Even though the poem is very short and simple, a striking feature of the language used is its simplicity. The poet has used simple, everyday words, with short sentences, but is still able to create a very powerful and meaningful piece that truly reflects his feelings and portrays a huge sense of loss very effectively so that we as the readers can fully appreciate his true feelings and be able to see the passionate love that this man had for Lucy.