Lucy Gray's Relation to Wordsworth's Preface

In Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”, he establishes a revolutionary way of writing poetry: for the common man. Ironically, his intentions were to make poetry easier to understand, however I struggled initially to comprehend some of his messages. It is coming along more easily now. Wordsworth believes that poets should abstain from using poetic diction, meaning that poetry should be written in a way for all men to understand, not only for other poets. Being a Romantic Poet, Wordsworth focused Lyrical Ballads on everyday events that happen in nature and rural life. Though some believe that Wordsworth may have been condescending for considering it his duty to write in a way that anyone could understand, I believe that his style is appropriate, even necessary, considering the content he was writing about, the natural world, which applied more to the people of rural life styles. Although not writing about nature alone, Wordsworth synergized ordinary events and “[threw] over them a certain coloring of imagination, whereby ordinary things may be presented to the mind in an unusual way” (Broadview 148) to make it more interesting and relatable to the common reader.

The poem that I enjoyed most and that encompassed his ideas from “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” was Lucy Gray. The diction in the poem is easy enough to understand while also displaying complex imagery and symbols, accomplishing his desire to splash “color” on his simpler poems. Lucy Gray is a poem that depicts a young girl that leaves her house in the country to go to town. A storm comes when Lucy is out, and the next day her parents follow her footprints in the snow until they end at the bridge by the river. Wordsworth stays true to his ideas in the Preface of Lyrical Ballads by constantly comparing this country girl to images of nature. Initially, Lucy is compared to several living things found throughout nature, such as a sweet flower, a playful fawn, a hare upon a green field until she sets out into the darkness. Once Lucy is lost, Wordsworth no longer compares her to living symbols, but to the rushing river where she died. “O’er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.” This poem is relatable to people who are from rural life styles not only because they are surrounded by nature, but recognizes the dangers that come with nature. He accomplishes his goal of presenting an ordinary event in an unusual way by personifying living symbols in nature and comparing them to Lucy, then personifying a nonliving symbol and compares it to Lucy.