She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways
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).
2 Beside the springs of Dove,
3A Maid whom there were none to praise
4 And very few to love:
5A violet by a mossy stone
6 Half hidden from the eye!
7--Fair as a star, when only one
8 Is shining in the sky.
9She lived unknown, and few could know
10 When Lucy ceased to be;
11But she is in her grave, and, oh,
12 The difference to me!
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. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1800
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.335.
Rhyme