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Although the poet is probably writing about
a personal, actual experience in the following poem, he is also making a
character of himself— that is, characterizing himself in a certain way,
emphasizing some parts of himself and not others. We can call this character a
persona.
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!
Did Lucy actually live? Was she a friend of
the poet? We don’t know; the poem doesn’t tell us, and even biographers of
Wordsworth are unsure. What we do know is that Wordsworth was able to represent
grief very powerfully. Whether the speaker is the historical Wordsworth or not,
that speaker is a major focus of the poem, and it is his feelings that the poem
isolates and expresses. We need to recognize some characteristics of the
speaker and be sensitive to his feelings for the poem to work.
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