Wordsworth`s Lucy Gray

Sahar Yassin Alshobaki

Mrs. Ahlam Anber

Romanticism

25^th October, 2013

Reflection on Wordsworth`s Lucy Gray

         William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, is convinced that he is Nature’s true worshipper and a revealer of her harmonies. He is an excellent example of the self-medication through nature. He loved nature and natural objects in all its forms, and this love of nature led him to the love of humanity. Lucy Gray is one of these natural objects whose description is delectable for Wordsworth. He has love and sympathy for this little girl because she is a source of inspiration, as well as nature, for the poet to compose this poem. In this poem, we, as readers, can hint two major romantic features: imagination and nature.

         The first romantic feature is imagination. This poem is considered as Wordsworth`s secondary imagination. He first listened to the story from his sister, Dorothy. Then he recollected the ideas again in the form of this poem. Lucy Gray, he remarked, “was founded on a circumstance told me by my sister, of a little girl who was bewildered in a snow-storm. Her footsteps were traced by her parents to the middle of the lock of a canal, and no other vestige of her, backward or forward, could be traced. The body, however, was found in the canal”. Thus, the poem talked about the same events; still, using his imagination, he tried to immortalize this little girl by merging, connecting, and attaching her with every part of nature. Hence, Wordsworth is trying to pull this poem away from realism into a state dominated by his imagination.

         The second romantic feature is nature which the little girl was united with. From the very beginning of the poem, he tried to unite Lucy with the natural elements. He said, “I chanced to sea at the break of a day the solitary child” which suggested the connection between this solitary child with the solitary nature. Then he said, “she dwelt in a wide moor, the sweetest thing that ever grew”. Here, we can notice that the setting is nature, and the use of the word “grew” suggested that she is a part of nature, and they grew together. Moreover, when Lucy tried to go to the town, she could not do that as he said, “many a hill did Lucy climb but never reached the town”. This could mean that she is really innocent like nature. That is why she found difficulties while going to the touched nature, town, so she was lost in nature. At the end, when the parents could not find her, her father said, “she is a living child that you may see sweet Lucy Gray upon the lonesome wild”. This means that her soul exists in nature, and that he would remember her in every natural element around him. Thus, to him, she is immortalized through nature. He also continued saying that she “sings a solitary song that whistles in the wind”. Here, the haunting idea is emphasized more and more that the child exists, even in death, as a part of nature; even her singing could be heard through the sound of the wind. Indeed, he began his poem and ended it by linking Lucy with nature.

          All in all, the poem “Lucy Gray” focuses on a little child who was lost and emerged with nature. It is a great piece of Wordsworth’s creative talent which observes the dimensions of romantic features. We, as reader, can figure the romantic features out easily. The two important features in this poem are imagination, and nature. Both of these features led to the immortalization of the little girl, Lucy Gray. Thus, she is no longer lost since her spirit has been everywhere, so we can see her in every part of nature.