The Lucy Poems (William Wordsworth): The Identity of Lucy

The Lucy poems are a series of five poems composed by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth between 1798 and 1801. In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideas of beauty, nature, love, longing and death.

        The poem was written during a short period of time while the poet lived in Germany. Although they individually deal with a variety of themes, as a series they focus on the poet's longing for the company of his friend Coleridge, who had travelled with him to Germany but took up residence separately in the university town of Gottingen, and on his increasing impatience with his sister Dorothy, who had travelled with him abroad. Wordsworth examines the poet's unrequited love for the idealised character of Lucy, an English girl who has died young. The idea of her death weighs heavily on the poet throughout the series, imbuing it with a melancholic, elegiac tone.

         In all of the Lucy poems, Lucy is given the embodiment of lady nature with all her spiritual powers and blessings. She is young maiden who lived an unremarkable isolated life near the River Dove in the English midlands. Although blessed with beauty, she didn’t have many suitors primarily because of the distance she kept between herself and others. She died young and though her passing away went unnoticed and unremarked by many, it forever and profoundly made the world a different place for the one person who seems to have glimpsed all her charms.

        Whether Lucy was based on a real woman or was a figment of the poet's imagination has long been a matter of debate among scholars. Generally Wordsworth did not reveal the inspiration for the character of Lucy, and over the years the topic has generated intense speculation among literary historians. Some scholars are of the opinion that Lucy is based on his sister Dorothy, while others see her as a fictitious or hybrid character. Most critics agree that she is essentially a literary device upon whom he could project, meditate and reflect.

    

        Moorman suggests that Lucy may represent Wordsworth's romantic interest in Mary Hutchinson, but wonders why she would be represented as one who died. It is possible that Wordsworth was thinking of Margaret Hutchinson, Mary's sister who had died. There is no evidence, however, that the poet loved any one of the Hutchinsons other than Mary. It is more likely that Margaret's death influenced but is not the foundation for Lucy.