William Wordsworth provides multitudes of arguments and ideals in “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” about the nature of poetry. The poem “Lucy Gray” by Wordsworth is a prime example that highlights these ideals he set out in Lyrical Ballads. The principle object in these poems, according to Wordsworth is to relate incidents from everyday life and describes them “in a selection of language really used by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain coloring of imagination”. “Lucy Gray” does this in a layered way.
“Lucy Gray” is written in “a selection of language really used by men” in two important and distinct ways. The first is obvious in terms of Wordsworth’s diction. It is straightforward and to the point with little flowery language to pad the lines. For example, “The sweetest Thing that ever grew/ Beside a human door!” is a line that is written plainly, where anyone could understand its meaning. The second way in which “Lucy Gray” is written with the common tongue in mind is its subject matter. This poem is written about a young girl going missing in the wilderness during a storm. This story of of a child going missing is a tragedy that everyday people living in small rural areas would be familiar with. This story relates to the soft spot of people and would be something small town people would be intimately linked too.
The other ideal that Wordsworth considered to be part of the principle object of his poems is to describe everyday events with “a certain coloring of imagination”. Wordsworth takes the tragedy of Lucy’s disappearance and turns it into something less tragic, but a more supernatural and peaceful ending with no real answer. “Yet some maintain that to this day/ She is a living Child,/ That you may see sweet Lucy Gray/ Upon the lonesome Wild”. The missing child and death that Wordsworth based this poem off of has shifted from certain tragedy, into a story full of imagination and emotion that isn’t just sadness. This ending defines Wordsworth’s idea that “the human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity.” The supernatural end to Lucy Gray excites the audience without giving her a traumatic end and embraces the beauty of mystery and oneness of nature. This dignified end gives the audience a sense of peace and appreciation for nature without receiving an answer about Lucy’s fate.
Brit Lit 2020 