Explication of William Wordsworth's "She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways"

William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who believed that poetry was an overflow of feelings and emotion according to what he wrote in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. His poem "She Dwelt in Untrodden Ways," part of the grouping called the Lucy poems, certainly shows the reader a wealth of emotions. The Lucy poems "variously ordered in different editions tell...of an uneasy courtship, blissful domestic life, and abrupt and devastating loss" (Jackson). According to most, the Lucy poems are seen as a "lyrical sequence," according to Mark Jones, but that interpretation may be much too simple. However, in any event, the power of Wordsworth's poetry is undeniable and the feelings that he brings forth are remarkable. As Matthew Sneider, a professor at Chapman University says, "Poems like this evoke the speaker's peculiarly mingled feelings of grief and awe be leaving out the narrative details one would expect to encounter in conventional elegies and laments. Who is Lucy? Why did she die?" (Sneider 25). He is right, and this adds to the power and talent of Wordsworth. Normally the reader would be interested in the specifics of the event, but we lose ourselves in the sparse beauty of the words. We forget to ask those other questions.