She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:
The speaker describes Lucy as a treasure shielded from society. She lived in a remote place where she didn't have many suitors to tell her how beautiful she was. The mention of springs connotes purity, suggesting that she was a virtuous woman living in the countryside.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
During his travels abroad, the speaker felt an air of melancholy. He was not entranced by his travels and felt almost as if he were unfaithful to a loved one, so strong was his commitment to England. In his heart, his homeland and his beloved Lucy are one. Thus, he vows never to leave again as he will always prefer England.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.
At the end of the poem, Wordsworth reveals his ulterior motive for staying in England. The speaker feels he must remain in England in order to honor the memory of his beloved Lucy, who passed away in the countryside of his homeland.
Three years she grew in sun and shower
Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower
On earth was never sown;
This Child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.
In this poem, a personified Nature becomes the principal speaker and elaborates on Lucy's beauty. Seeing how lovely Lucy is, Nature decides to adopt her in a sense and groom her to be beautiful, happy, and in tune with her natural surroundings. The sad irony is that the same Nature eventually cuts her life short, because, as the speaker puts it, it wants to take her for itself.
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
—Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
Lucy is compared to a beautiful flower concealed from view by a mossy stone. She is also as beautiful as the sight of a single, brilliant star shining in the sky. She is depicted as a diamond in the rough who most people overlooked. The flower reference, however, hints at her fragility and mortality, as all creatures must die. The star reference further highlights and foreshadows her demise to come.
My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof,
At once, the bright moon dropped.
The speaker recounts the experience of riding toward his beloved Lucy's cottage at night. As his pace quickens, his eager anticipation to see his lover grows. However, the bright moon which has been guiding him and slowly descending during his journey suddenly drops from view. This occurrence sets off panic and fear in the speaker's mind—his "strange fit of passion." With the sudden disappearance of the moon, he suddenly fears he may lose Lucy one day, just as he lost his guiding light that illuminated her home and thus her existence.
A slumber did my spirit seal
In the last poem of the cycle, the speaker reveals that his mind and spirit were essentially asleep when thinking of his beloved Lucy—leading him to believe that she really was ageless. He did not see her death coming, for he truly believed that all of her beautiful qualities made her immortal and untouchable. Sadly, he realizes in this poem that he was mistaken and must accept the cold reality of her death.
I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.
The speaker does not fully realize his love for his homeland until he travels abroad. Upon returning to England, he realizes that, being the place where his beloved Lucy lived and died, England will always be his home and he will never leave again.
The floating clouds their state shall lend
To her; for her the willow bend
A personified Nature elaborates on the ways in which the natural elements will help cultivate Lucy into a fine young woman. She has the comfort of the clouds, like pillows giving her a place to rest her head. The willow will also bend its branches to offer her shade and protection. She lives harmoniously with nature.
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
The speaker acknowledges that Lucy is now part of the earth. She was mortal after all, and now she is rolled into the earth with other creatures that have died. However, she has now taken her place alongside the more permanent elements of nature like rocks that form the foundation of the earth. She is now gone, yet she holds a permanent place in the natural world.
