Lucy Poems
Lucy poems
Lucy poems are the 5 different poems written by WW between 1798 and 1801.
They belong to the second edition of ‘’Lyrical Ballads’’, which is a collection of both Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poems.
Lucy poems are lyrical ballads, they are written in verse and they all tell a story as briefly as possible. Wordsworth wrote them in the simple language of common people and he often used dramatic changes of states and ironic inversions which are also present in the traditional ballad.
Among the Lucy poems, ‘’The Strange fits of passion have I known’’ is probably the most obvious ballad since it has an old, very simple ballad form.
However, the Lucy poems never existed as such in W’s day, they were grouped this way by Victorian critics and editors after his death.
~ Inspiration ~
In terms of literary origin, Lucy derives from Robert Anderson’s song ‘’Lucy Gray of Allendale’’ which was written approximately at the same time and place as these 5 poems. Some critics believe that W was very much impressed with this happening and as a result, he wrote the Lucy poems.
A great deal of attention has been given to the biographical problems raised by these poems. There is no exact answer to the question who Lucy is, except to say that it is irrelevant. Lucy may be inspired by W’s younger sister Dorothy or by the mother of his daughter – Annette Vallon or by any other young woman. It is interesting that Coleridge’s guess was that Dorothy is hidden behind the character of Lucy.
On the other hand, she can also be viewed as a folk-song heroine, as well as a nature-spirit. However, there is no reason to suppose that W had any particular person in mind.
Critics were more interested in the psychobiographical context, in the emotional line of his work, rather than in the speculations over Lucy’s real-life counterpart.
Between October 1798 and February 1799, W worked on the first draft of the Lucy poems. At that time he was separated from his
Lucy poems are the 5 different poems written by WW between 1798 and 1801.
They belong to the second edition of ‘’Lyrical Ballads’’, which is a collection of both Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poems.
Lucy poems are lyrical ballads, they are written in verse and they all tell a story as briefly as possible. Wordsworth wrote them in the simple language of common people and he often used dramatic changes of states and ironic inversions which are also present in the traditional ballad.
Among the Lucy poems, ‘’The Strange fits of passion have I known’’ is probably the most obvious ballad since it has an old, very simple ballad form.
However, the Lucy poems never existed as such in W’s day, they were grouped this way by Victorian critics and editors after his death.
~ Inspiration ~
In terms of literary origin, Lucy derives from Robert Anderson’s song ‘’Lucy Gray of Allendale’’ which was written approximately at the same time and place as these 5 poems. Some critics believe that W was very much impressed with this happening and as a result, he wrote the Lucy poems.
A great deal of attention has been given to the biographical problems raised by these poems. There is no exact answer to the question who Lucy is, except to say that it is irrelevant. Lucy may be inspired by W’s younger sister Dorothy or by the mother of his daughter – Annette Vallon or by any other young woman. It is interesting that Coleridge’s guess was that Dorothy is hidden behind the character of Lucy.
On the other hand, she can also be viewed as a folk-song heroine, as well as a nature-spirit. However, there is no reason to suppose that W had any particular person in mind.
Critics were more interested in the psychobiographical context, in the emotional line of his work, rather than in the speculations over Lucy’s real-life counterpart.
Between October 1798 and February 1799, W worked on the first draft of the Lucy poems. At that time he was separated from his