Ultimately, the speaker's elegiac treatment of Lucy's death transforms her into an idealization of a young woman, more than a literal interpretation of the flesh-and-blood being she might have been before her premature death. Another poem written around the same period has been excluded from the grouping, despite being titled “Lucy Gray,” due to its supposedly factual inspiration. With the exception of “A slumber did my spirit seal,” all the poems in the grouping mention Lucy by name. As Wordsworth proclaimed in the prelude to the second volume of the Lyrical Ballads, he wished to “choose incidents and situations from common life” recounted through “language really used by men.” Like the other verses in the Lyrical Ballads-considered the defining work of the English Romantic literary movement-the “Lucy Poems” are written in a direct, vernacular style that reflects the speaker’s emotions. She represents Romantic ideals of love and loss, nature and the supernatural, joy and pain. Scholars now regard Lucy as the poet’s imaginary muse-the embodiment of Wordsworth’s poetic views and life experiences. However, her description does not match any particular known person from Wordsworth’s life. Some have suggested that Lucy may represent Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy or one of his love interests. To this day, the person on whom Lucy was based remains unknown. As the poems progress, we learn that she died young and inspired the speaker to write his elegiac verses about her. The “Lucy Poems” convey the unrequited love of the speaker for a woman named Lucy. Since then, scholars typically consider the works in the order in which they were written. However, in 1831, literary critic Thomas Powell recognized the works as a collection unified by a common theme. While the poems all focus on the same subject, Wordsworth did not intend to present them as a group or in a particular sequence. They include “Strange fits of passion have I known,” “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” “I travelled among unknown men,” “Three years she grew in sun and shower,” and “A slumber did my spirit seal.” All but one of the poems, “I travelled among unknown men,” were included in the second volume of the Lyrical Ballads-a collection of poems Wordsworth composed with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. William Wordsworth’s “ Lucy Poems” consist of five verses composed between 17.
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