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A Reading of William Wordsworth's "Lucy" Poems

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A Reading of William Wordsworth's WILLIAM AND DOROTHY: THE POET AND LUCY A READING OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH'S "LUCY" POEMS Elizabeth Gowland B.A. (Hons.), Simon Fraser University, 1975 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the department 0f English 0 Elizabeth Gowland 1980 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April, 1980 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Elizabeth Anne GOWLAND Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: William and Dorothy: The Poet and Lucy A Reading of William Wordsworth's "Lucy" Poems Exami ning Commi ttee : Chai rperson: Paul Del any - r --* .. r T7T -\ Jared Curtis , Senior Supervisor Rob Dunham, Associate Professor Mason Harris , Associate Professor June Sturrock, External Examiner Dept. of Continuing Studies, S. F.U. Date Approved: &5'4.@0 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay MILL/ 4~ wbboRo7~q: 7 PET h~bLUCY A R~emivb O+ ~OR~WORT~/S'Lucy/ POEMS Author: - Ys:signature) A~E;usir$9- /q8o (date) iii ABSTRACT This thesis presents an exegesis of each of Wordsworth's "Lucy" poems in the context of the poet's frame of mind during two of the most painful periods in his life. The first is the winter he and his sister Dorothy spent in Germany in 1798-1799, when he composed "Strange fits of passion I have known," "She dwelt among the untrodden ways," "A slumber did my spirit seal" and "Three years she grew in sun and shower." The second is the unproductive period that began in the autumn of 1800 and lasted until the end of 1801, when the only new poem Wordsvorth is known to have composed is "I travell'd among unknown men." My discussion of the poems' biographical background focuses upon the complex nature and origins of Wordsworth's relationship with his sister. During the winter of 1798-1 799 Wordsworth was intensely dependent upon Dorothy; the "Lucy" poems probably emerged out of a fantasy about Dorothy's .. .. - / 6, ' t I ,</ '- a' / death. The same melancholy introspection that produced Part One of the two- part Prelude of 1798-1799 also produced the "Lucy" poems. Similarities between the early part of The Recluse,- Home at Grasmere, which Wordsworth began in the spring of 1800, and "I travell' d among unknown men'' suggest that the latter was generated by Wordsworth's attempts to proceed with the long poem. "I travell'd among unknown men" expresses feelings that Wordsworth could not turn into a discourse on pastoral life in the spring of 1801. wordsworth's return to the "Lucy" series at this time suggests that his relationship with his sister was on his mind, as it had been in the winter of 1798-1799 and in the spring of 1800. "I travell'd among unknown men" is simul- taneously a love poem to Dorothy and a declaration of independence. The "Lucy" poems explore the effect of the death of a girl upon her lover. The central meaning of the poems is contained in the speaker's response to Lucy's death. The speaker's sorrow colours his perception of the external universe. The joyous vision of the unity of the universe that Wordsworth celebrated in "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey'' is obscured in the "Lucy" poems by the speaker's self-centred grief. Wordsworth's concern with mutability in the "Lucy" poems foreshadows the increasing reliance upon God and "the faith that looks through death" that he expressed in poems such as the "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" and "Resolution and Independence" after 1802. Strange fits of passion I have known, And I will dare to tell, But in the over's ear alone, , I If CPJ . What once to me-befel . When she I lov'd was strong and gay And like a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath an evening moon. Upon the moon I fix'd my eye, All over the wide lea; ,-, My horse trudg'd on, an$ t~e;drew nigh Those paths so dear to me& And now we reach'd the orchard plot, And, as we climb'd the hill, Towards the roof of Lucy's cot The moon descended (still. - / - .- lC r1n one of those ~weet dreams . I slept, ' Kind Nature ' s gentlest boon f / And, all the while my eyes I kept On the descending moon. My horse mved on; hoof after hoof He rais'd and never stopp'd When down behind the cottage roof At-- once the planet dropp'd. -." ------- What fond,\andwaywardthoughtswillslide f >// ,. Into a Lover's head-- - <- r, f / . f /I( n< ,,\ (,*,, ' f / "0 mercy:" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead!" tq 3?f ; ( - -( , , Song She dwelt among th'untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, -- A Maid whom there were none to praise '\ fl And very few to love. A Violet by a mossy stone J / Half hidden from the Eye! - / --Fair, as a star when only one , il- Is shining in the sky: - She liv'd unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceas' d to be ; But she is in her Grave, and, oh! The difference to me. A slumber did my spirit seal, - - / // I had no human fears: - She seern'd a this that could not feel The touch ofearthly years. No motion has she now, no force She neither hears nor sees Rolled round in earth's diurnal course With rocks and stones and trees! viii 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. Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse, and with me The Girl in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Crr I/ 11 /-- I Shall feel an overseein1power . -,I /'('f ' To kindle or restraxn; 11 I '), ' She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs, And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things. The floating clouds their state shall lend To her, for her the willow bend, Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the storm A beauty that shall mould her form By silent sympathy. The stars of midnight shall be dear To her, and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face. And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell, Such thoughts to Lucy I will give While she and I together live Here in this happy dell. Thus Nature spake -- the work was done -- How soon my Lucy's race was run l She died and left to me This heath, this calm, and quiet scene, The memory of what has been, And nevdr more will be. I travell'd among unknown Men, In Lands beyond the Sea; Nor England! did I know till then What love I bore to thee. 'Tis past, that melancholy dream! Nor will I quit thy shore A second time; for still I seem To love thee more and more. Among thy mountains did I feel The joy of my desire; And she I cherished turn'd her wheel Beside an English fire. '-7 '13 umrnings shew'd -- thy nights conceal'd The bowers where Lucy play'd And-th.i~.-i-s_~I_. _ . too, the last green field Which Lucy's eyes surveyed! The texts of Wordsworth's "Lucy1' poems that are included here are from Lyrical Ballads (1800) and Poems, in Two Volumes (1807). Unless otherwise noted, all other poems quoted in this essay are taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, ed. Ernest de Selincourt, revised by Helen Darbishire, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940-1949, vol. I & I1 rev. 1952). TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Approval page i i Abstract i i i Quo tations v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: GERMANY, 1798-1799 1 I Strange fits of passion I have known" "She dwelt among the untrodden ways1' "A slumber did my spirit seal" I I Three years she grew in sun and shower" CHAPTER 3: GRASMERE "I t rave 11 ' d among unknown men" CHAPTER 4: CONCLUDING REMARKS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ----CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 'To see the object as in itself it really is,'has been justly said to be the aim of all true criticism whatever; and in aesthetic criticism the first step towards seeing one's object as it really is, is to know one's own impression as it really is, to discriminate it, to realise it distinctly.
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