SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS-CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

This post is about the critical analysis of She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways written by William Wordsworth. In this post, you will find out the complete summary of the poem in an easy to understand language. Moreover, you will find some extra information about the poet as well as the poem in this post which you will certainly find helpful. Let us find the critical analysis of She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways written by William Wordsworth.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

—Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

ABOUT THE POET

William Wordsworth was an English Romantic pet who had helped to launch the Romantic Age in English Literature. He was born in Cockermouth, U.K., on 7^th April 1770.

He took his last breathe on 23^rd April 1850, at Rydal Mount and Gardens, U.K.

He married Mary Hutchinson and had three children, named Dora, Catherine Wordsworth, and Anne Caroline Wordsworth.

He was one of the founders of English Romanticism and is always remembered as a spirituality port and also a poet with epistemological speculation. Wordsworth’s first poetic study began when he was a kid in grammar school. William Wordsworth is always best known for his ‘Lyrical Ballads’, ‘The Prelude’, and many more.

This poem,” She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways “, was written by Wordsworth in 1798, when he was just 28 years old. This was a great  English poem during the romantic era of his time. This poem was very popular during that era. It has a great inspiring and counselling nature which reflects the poet’s point of view.

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

ABOUT THE POEM

The poem, ” She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways “, is being written by Wordsworth, During the era of romanticism. he was just 28 years old when he thought to write this poem.

This poem initially was in a verse form, which was first printed in this is the structure of a Lyrical Ballads, during the year 1800. This poem was first published in Wordsworth‘s volumes of poems. This poem pulls in front the grief and agony he was suffering through that time. It consists of the loneliness and the losses the poet had suffered in his life and how she consolidated himself to overcome those situations. This poem is also about a imaginary woman,  who according to the poet,  is beautiful and sensitive in her world.  she lives in the imagination of the poet’s mind.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

THEME

This poem, “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways “, describes the sacrifice, and unrealistic love which the poet bears for that woman. It specifies about the loss of ty the character of the poem is bearing in that far isolated place. The lady, named Lucy, is an inevitable character who bears beauty and her dignity all through her life till death.

The poem also revolves around those themes of Unrequited Love, Death, and some others, which are explained as follows:-

Unrequited Love:-

According to some critics, the poet bears an Unrequited love for that unknown and lonely character of the poem, named Lucy. The lady was a young, English girl, who had died at a young age. But the death of that young lady was so mournful that the poet was in gold with the same melancholy and grief the lady was suffering during her death.  The only difference between that Lady and the poet was that the lady was suffering from physical agony whereas, the poet Was overfilled with the mental and psychological agony by seeing that young lady dying all alone in that isolated place.

Death:-

This poem revolves around the theme of loneliness and loss of near and dear ones and isolation of someone into a distinct place. Here, death, Is an inevitable situation every person has to face in their life. The poet portrays the death of that young lady, Lucy,  overwhelmed by the grief and sorrow the poet feels for that lady. The poet describes how the lonely lady dwelt in the forest woods all alone we turn all problems and difficulties in her life.

FORM AND STRUCTURE:

This poem, “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, Is being divided into 3 quatrains, in which, each quatrain consist of four lines in a stanza. It also has a rhyming scheme of  ABCB Which is continuous till the poem ends.  The whole poem revolves around a single Plot or theme of how Lucy, who was living in an isolation near the Dove River, spent her life and how she had welcomed her death in her life sophisticatedly.

This poem is completely based on simple vocabulary and is easy to understand. This was done to portray the simplicity, beauty and generous behaviour of the character in the poem.

This poem is in a complete traditional Ballad form, consisting of soothing rhythms and languages in the poem.

LITERARY DEVICES :

The few Literary devices that are been used up by the poet, in the poem, “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, are as follows —

a)Metaphor: A Metaphor is a poetic device used up in the poem to apply comparison between two objects or things, that are completely different.

In this poem, “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, the poet has used metaphor in the first line of the second stanza. here, he compares the woman in the poem with the colour Violet.

for example,

A violet by a mossy stone

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS-CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

b)Simile: A simile is also a figure of speech, which mostly is used to emphasise the comparison between two things that are similar in nature.

Here, in this poem, a Simile is being used by the poet in the 2^nd stanza as the shiningstars.

for example,

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

c)Alliteration: Another figure of speech used up in this poem is alliteration. It is the repetition of continuous consonant words in a sentence.

In this poem, Alliteration is used in the phrase, as,

Half hidden from the eye!

d)Imagery: Imagery is also considered as a figure of speech in which all the five senses of human nature are being portraited by the poet to make the readers perceive the poem more efficiently. Here, in this poem, Imagery is being used in the phrases, such as,

Half hidden from the eye!

or,

But she is in her grave, and, oh

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS-CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

e)Enjambment: It is a Figure of speech commonly used up in poems to gain the attention of the readers in a better way.

In this poem also, Wordsworth the form of Enjambment to relate the poem with the readers’ minds.

for example,

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

BACKGROUND of the Poem:

The title of this poem, “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways”, is justified by the critics. Wordsworth’s this poem revolves around a woman who had isolated herself in the woods and how she dwelt with her problems all alone. The poet also analyses how this young lady, Lucy, had welcomed her death when it was about to arrive in her life.

The term, Untrodden, means the path, through which no one has crossed for years. In this poem, the post used up this phrase to indicate that, the woman lived in an isolated place where no life had crossed for many days. The term dwelt, indicates the hardships and struggles that the lady endured in her lonely life. She was all alone there and she had to face all the hardships and problems all alone that came to her life.

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS-CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)