She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways

“Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth (1800)

“Lucy Gray” appeared in the 1800 edition of The Lyrical Ballads. Although not technically one of the Lucy poems, it is often mentioned when discussing the set because this ballad also explores loss, here through the disappearance of a child in a surprise snowstorm. Like the Lucy of “She dwelt among untrodden ways,” Lucy Gray is described as “sweet” (Line 59) and “solitary” (Line 4) with “no mate, no comrade” (Line 5). When her parents find her footprints in the snow, but never discover her body, Lucy Gray becomes the stuff of legend, her spirit wandering “upon the lonesome wild” (Line 60). This Lucy, too, takes on an afterlife that is mysterious and a catalyst for the speaker’s imagination.

“Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known” by William Wordsworth (1800)

This ballad precedes “She dwelt among the untrodden ways” in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800). Foreshadowing Lucy’s death, it depicts the speaker’s passion turning to fear when riding toward Lucy’s cottage. In the past, “she I loved looked every day / Fresh as a rose in June” (Lines 5-6), and now a “strange fits of passion” (Line 1) drives the speaker to seek Lucy.