Notes
1] Composed in Germany. The Lucy who is the subject of a small group of poems, most of them written in the winter of 1798-99, has never been identified, if she ever existed except as a creation of the poet's imagination. A widely held theory is that the poems represent an attempt to give literary expression and distance to Wordsworth's feeling of affection for his sister. See Coleridge's comment on the next poem.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, 2nd edn. (London: Longman, 1800). No. 5, 1 (c.1,2), 2(c.1) (Victoria College Library, Toronto).
First publication date:
1800
RPO poem editor: J. R. MacGillivray
RP edition: 3RP 2.335.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/20
Composition date:
1798
Composition date note: late 1798
Rhyme: abab