In the poem Lucy Gray we can see Wordsworth’s ideas of what poetry should be in full view. The first is that of nature and life, as we discussed in class, sadly it seemed that it was common for villages to have missing children stories where children leave and never return, and this poem shows that as it follows the last moments of Lucy’s life and her eventually becoming one with nature as people can still hear her singing in the wind. This leaves the family of Lucy Gray with some hope as she may still be alive or that after she died she became one with the forest and wanders it for the rest of her days peacefully.
With Wordsworth’s second reasoning for writing lyrical ballads, that to emphasize poetry as an art form and enlighten his readers to the depth of human emotions, this is shown through the metre of the poem as it alternates from iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, which give the poem a sort of nursery rhyme quality. This is a poem that feels like the story came first and the metre followed allowing not only the story to captivate the reader but also the flow which makes one appreciate the poem more.
It also follows his last ideal that poetry doesn’t have to be overly complicated or ornamental in order to hold the reader. The idea and story for this poem are quite simple but based on the skill of his writing he holds the reader’s attention for the whole poem, and since it’s in a more simple form and language it can be appreciated by anyone rather than just by those who could read or understand the complex language most poems contained. He returns the art back to the people by not only taking a story from an actual village about a girl who went missing during a storm, but also gives it a rhyme to be heard for years whether it be read in front of a large crowd in a town square or to that of a family by the fire.
Brit Lit 2020 