Analysis of Lucy Gray
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at break of day
The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
--The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!
You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.
"To-night will be a stormy night--
You to the town must go;
And take a lantern, Child, to light
Your mother through the snow."
"That, Father! will I gladly do:
'Tis scarcely afternoon--
The minster-clock has just struck two,
And yonder is the moon!"
At this the Father raised his hook,
And snapped a faggot-band;
He plied his work;--and Lucy took
The lantern in her hand.
Not blither is the mountain roe:
With many a wanton stroke
Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.
The storm came on before its time:
She wandered up and down;
And many a hill did Lucy climb:
But never reached the town.
The wretched parents all that night
Went shouting far and wide;
But there was neither sound nor sight
To serve them for a guide.
At day-break on a hill they stood
That overlooked the moor;
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.
They wept--and, turning homeward, cried,
"In heaven we all shall meet;"
--When in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.
Then downwards from the steep hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn hedge,
And by the long stone-wall;
And then an open field they crossed:
The marks were still the same;
They tracked them on, nor ever lost;
And to the bridge they came.
They followed from the snowy bank
Those footmarks, one by one,
Into the middle of the plank;
And further there were none!
--Yet some maintain that to this day
She is a living child;
That you may see sweet Lucy Gray
Upon the lonesome wild.
O'er rough and smooth she trips along,
And never looks behind;
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.
Scheme | ABAB CDCE AFAF GHGH CICI JKJK HLHL MNMN GOGO PDPE OQOQ RSRS TUTU VWVW ABAB XYXY |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 11111101 011101 11111111 01001 1111101 111011 01011101 010101 11110111 010101 10111101 110111 11110101 110111 01010111 110101 11011101 11001 01011111 010101 11010111 010101 11110101 010001 1110101 1100101 010101001 110111 01110111 110101 010011101 110101 01010111 110101 11110111 111101 11110111 11001 01110111 01111 11010101 0101111 10010101 01111 11010111 11011 0101011 010111 01110111 010101 11111101 010111 11010101 11111 01010101 010101 11011111 110101 11111101 010101 101011101 010101 0101001 110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,986 |
Words | 375 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 04, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 4,183 Views
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"Lucy Gray" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42254/lucy-gray>.
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