William Wordsworths Lucy Gray Essay - 945 Words

William Wordsworths Lucy Gray Losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences every person must go through. The experience does not end with the loss though, but begins with it. The loss of a dear person leads those left behind into a downward spiral of emotions and memories. A poem entitled â€Å"Lucy Gray† by William Wordsworth focuses on that loss and the emotions that follow it. By reading the poem one can objectively experience both the grief that Lucy Gray’s death brings on but also her parents’ acceptance of her death. The poem in brief summary allows us to experience an outsider’s view of the death of Lucy Gray and her parents’ grief. The character narrating the poem tells the story of Lucy, a girl who was sent†¦show more content†¦The stranger in the narration of the story, at one point focuses on the parent’s helplessness when their daughter does not come home. The feeling of helplessness is the first emotion they experience as realization of their daughter’s disappearance and possible death sets in. This helplessness is best expressed in the following lines of the poem: The wretched parents all that night Went shouting far and wide; But there was neither sight nor sound To serve them for a guide. (33 – 36) Additionally the parents feel helpless is because no one else besides them is looking for their daughter. It is up to them to find her and if they do not find her alive, it is a failure on their part to keep their child safe and alive. The lines also show the desperation that Lucy’s parents start to feel as they see that they cannot find her and that the snowy weather lowers any chance in their hearts that she will actually be found alive. It is these feelings of helplessness and the desperation that introduce the grief that will follow. The helplessness is best shown the next day in the poem when Lucy’s parents find her footsteps and follow them. The following lines how this helplessness: They followed from the snowy bank Those footmarks, one by one, Into the middle of the plank; AndShow MoreRelatedReal-Life Events In William Wordsworths Lucy Gray963 Words   |  4 PagesThis essay will explore the poem â€Å"Lucy Gray† written by William Wordsworth, and not only how he presents the story of real-life events in the form of a poem, but as well how I feel the poem has been so well-loved by readers over the last two centuries. William Wordsworth presents the true and heartbreaking story of Lucy Gray in the form of a ballad. Taking us back to the tragic passing of a young girl who was on her way from her family home to town as her father asked her to find herRead MoreEssay about William Wordsworth1193 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Wordsworth William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumberland, England. His poetry, and especially his poems on solitude, must have been heavily influenced by the death of his mother and the splitting up of his family when he was only eight (Kilvert 1). At that time, fate sent him to live in Hawkshead, England, where his teacher started him writing poetry. Wordsworth got his higher education at Cambridge, his memories of which play a part in his later poetry (NoyesRead MoreSummary of She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways11655 Words   |  47 PagesThe Lucy poems William Shuter, Portrait of William Wordsworth, 1798. Earliest known portrait of Wordsworth, painted in the year he wrote the first drafts of The Lucy poems[1] The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworths first majorRead MoreWilliam Wordsworth: A study of his poetry and its reflection of Romanticism Who is William Wordsworth? Why is he called a Romantic poet? How does his poetry reflect Romanticism?5604 Words   |  23 PagesWilliam Wordsworths poetry is characteristic of poetry written during the Romantic period. His pantheism and development of ambiance, the thoughts and feelings expressed and the diction Wordsworth employs are all symbolic of this periods poetry. In this paper, these characteristics will be explored and their Romantic propensities exposed. This will be done by utilizing a wide selection of Wordsworths poetry spanning the poets lifetime. His experiences are certainly mirrored in the subject