<P> According to the literary critic Kenneth Ober, the poem describes the "growth, perfection, and death" of Lucy . Whether Wordsworth has declared his love for her is left ambivalent, and even whether she had been aware of the poet's affection is unsaid . However the poet's feelings remain unrequited, and his final verse reveals that the subject of his affections has died alone . Lucy's "untrodden ways" are symbolic to the poet of both her physical isolation and the unknown details of her mind and life . In the poem, Wordsworth is concerned not so much with his observation of Lucy, but with his experience when reflecting on her death . </P> <P> "She dwelt" consists of three quatrains, and describes Lucy who lives in solitude near the source of the River Dove . In order to convey the dignity and unaffected flowerlike naturalness of his subject, Wordsworth uses simple language, mainly words of one syllable . In the opening quatrain, he describes the isolated and untouched area where Lucy lived, while her innocence is explored in the second, during which her beauty is compared to that of a hidden flower . The final stanza laments Lucy's early and lonesome death, which only he notices . </P> <P> Throughout the poem, sadness and ecstasy are intertwined, emphasised by the exclamation marks in the second and third verses . The effectiveness of the concluding line in the concluding stanza has divided critics and has variously been described as "a masterstroke of understatement" and overtly sentimental . Wordsworth's voice remains largely muted, and he was equally silent about the poem and series throughout his life . This fact was often mentioned by 19th century critics, however they disagreed as to its value . A critic, writing in 1851, remarked on the poem's "deep but subdued and silent devour ." </P> <P> This is written with an economy and spareness intended to capture the simplicity the poet sees in Lucy . Lucy's femininity is described in the verse in girlish terms, a fact that has drawn criticism from some critics that see a female icon, in the words of John Woolford "represented in Lucy by condemning her to death while denying her the actual or symbolic fulfillment of maternity". To evoke the "loveliness of body and spirit", a pair of complementary but opposite images are employed in the second stanza: a solitary violet, unseen and hidden, and Venus, emblem of love, and the first star of evening, public and visible to all . Wondering which Lucy most resembled--the violet or the star--the critic Cleanth Brooks concluded that although Wordsworth likely viewed her as "the single star, completely dominating (his) world, not arrogantly like the sun, but sweetly and modestly". Brooks considered the metaphor only vaguely relevant, and a conventional and anomalous complement . For Wordsworth, Lucy's appeal is closer to the violet and lies in her seclusion, and her perceived affinity with nature . </P>

Lucy poems she dwelt among the untrodden ways summary