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!

 

 

Form

The poem has three stanzas and each stanza has four lines

Meter: the odd lines are iambic tetrameter;

the even lines are iambic trimeter.

Rhyme: abab bcbc dede

 

 

Notes

1. untrodden: not be stepped or walked by

2. the springs of Dove: the river

3. mossy: covered with moss

4. cease: died

 

Paraphrase

First stanza: she lived in isolation, beside the river. She was a lady who was not praised and loved by anybody.

Second stanza: it was a violet which was unnoticed by people. But it was the single beautiful star in the sky.

Third stanza: she was known to very few people when she passed away. But her death made a difference to me.

 

Figure of speech

1. Symbol (use the star and violet to describe the lady)
2. Synecdoche (line 6 “eye”)
3. Personification (line 6 violet is hidden)
4. Simile (line 7 “fair as a star”)

 

Theme

The poem gives us a picture of a fair lady who is like a violet and star. And it shows the poet’s admiring feeling to such a lady who lived in isolation

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Helen

                                 By Edgar Allan Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!

 

Form

1. Three stanzas in the poem

2. Five lines in each stanza

3. Rhyme: ababb cdcdc effef

4. Alliteration: weary, way-worn, wanderer;      glory, Greece, grandeur

 

Notes

Helen: the Greek goddess of light or Helen of Troy who is considered to be the most beautiful woman who ever lived.

 

Nicean barks: ancient ship

yore: long ago

wont:  something a person often used

Hyacinth: 风信子

agate lamp: the time when Psyche discovered the true identity of Cupid

Psyche: a beautiful princess who became the lover of Cupid

 

 

Paraphrase

 First stanza: Helen, your beauty is like the ancient ship to me, which float in the sea gently and fragrantly, brings those tired traveler to their homeland.

Second stanza: the desperate seas roamed without ending. You hyacinth-like hair, classic face and Naiad-like figure made me recall the glory of Greece and the grandeur of Rome.

Third stanza: I saw you standing gracefully through the splendid window. You take the agate lamp. Psyche, the place where you live is the holy land.

 

Figure of speech

1. Simile (line 2”Nicean barks", line 12 “statue-like”)
2. Image (olfactory image “perfumed sea”; kinaesthetic image “bore to” “roam”;  visual image “hyacinth hair” “brilliant window-niche”)
3. Synecdoche (Greece and Rome represent the whole classic beauty)
4. Symbolism (Helen ,psyche)
5. Allusion (Helen, psyche, agate lamp)
6. Apostrophe (Helen, Psyche)

 

Theme

The poet uses two persons to illustrate what is beauty. The true beauty is the combination of physical beauty, like Helen’s appearance, and spiritual beauty, like the soul beauty of Psyche