FreeVerse is a weekly meme created by Ooh…Books. The idea behind in the meme is to celebrate poetry is some way or fashion. In This meme, you can either sharing poetry you wrote, others wrote and in any poetic form. Also, you can decide on how you share poetry. The sky’s the limit with this meme. This meme is hosted every Wednesday, but I have another post scheduled tomorrow, so I am participating today.

When I first saw this meme, the first poem that popped into my head was William Wordsworth’s She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways. Ever since I heard this poem at seventeen, it has been my favorite. I would read the poem over and over again just feeling words as I read.

Technical Details:

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways by William Wordsworth is part of a series of poems called The Lucy Poems. The poems are all focused on the deceased character of Lucy, with whom the writer is in love. There has always been a bit of controversy as to who exactly Lucy was. The main hypothesis is that Lucy was based upon Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy. The either hypothesis is that Lucy did not exist and she was simply used as a literary device.

My Take on Poetry:

Technical details aside, I feel when you read anything (especially poetry) there is always the assumption that the poem is being read by someone who did not write the poem. Because most published poetry is shared, read and reread by people who did not write the poems, I don’t really think there is really a wrong way to interpret or analyze a poem as long as the analysis has something to do with the poem. You can project your feelings onto poetry all day and night, and no one can really tell you that you are wrong, because poetry is fundamentally dependent upon the reader to extract the meaning from it.

The Poem:

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

by William Wordsworth

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

What Lucy Says to Me:

As a teenage girl, I felt pretty plain and insignificant compared to those around me. I knew that no matter what, I was not going to be the next Cindy Crawford or Nicole Kidman. It wasn’t the fact that I didn’t look like them, I just have been drawn to more down-to-earth things and those things do not include a huge fondness for make-up and tight clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m like any woman, I like to get dressed up and feel pretty, but I’m most at home in my sweatpants and baggy sweatshirts.

In She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, Lucy is not a great beauty. Lucy is an average woman who many do not pay attention to. She is not the girl that turns every head when she walks into the room. She is not the girl swarmed by men who are tying to get her attention. She is average. However, there is one person that she means the world to: the writer. Lucy becomes beautiful and the center of attention through the writer’s (Wordsworth) poem and love.

I believe that this poem symbolizes what all of us long for at some point in our lives: love. Most everyday folks know that we are not ever going to be or look like Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, or Halle Berry. I have known many non-famous beautiful women who turn heads where ever they go. Those girls are usually super skinny, big blond hair, big boobs, permanent tan, lots of make-up and Playboy like. I, frankly, have never really been one of them.  That’s okay, because now that I’m older, I only care if my husband’s head is turned when I walk in the room.

Do you have a poem that has had special meaning for you?

Related Reading

• Sorry…Not Really
• Three Ten Year Olds
• Lost in a Little Pond of Songs