The complicated contradictory story telling of "Lucy Gray."

In the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads," by William Wordsworth he remarks on what poetry should be, what poetry should do, and how it should be done. In Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray," I find the poem follows, contradicts, and complicates Wordsworth's stance about poetry in the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads."  There are three key components I take away from Wordsworth's Preface first beginning with  "For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: but though this to be true, Poems to which any value can be attached." (p. 123) Wordsworth also states that he himself "choose incidents and situations from common life." (p 122) Another key component that Wordsworth expresses is that "if his Reader's mind be sound and vigorous, should always be accompanied with an overbalance of pleasure." (128)

The poem "Lucy Gray," is about a beautiful innocent little girl who has fallen to a tragic death while walking to her mom in a blistery snowstorm. This description sounds painful and tragic, but the way Wordsworth writes it, from my perspective the poem seemed more like a fable to tell children so they don't go out in snowstorms, or a campfire ghost story. In my opinion, Wordsworth's poem "Lucy Gray,"  contradicts what Wordsworth states in the Preface simply by the fact that after reading the poem readers are not "overflow of powerful feelings." The poem is tragic, but after reading it I wasn't overcome by sadness, happiness, or any other overflow of emotion. The poem was enticing, tragic, and beautiful, but did not give the readers an affect of "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."(p. 123)

Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray," depicts a story where an innocent child dies, a common and tragic occurrence that often happened in Wordsworth time. In Wordsworth's Preface he tells the reader he chooses, "incidents and situations from common life." This is something Wordsworth does in Lucy Gray.

"To-night will be a stormy night--

 You to the town must go;

 And take a lantern, Child, to light

 Your mother through the snow." (L.13-16)

In the passage of "Lucy Gray," the reader can see the ease the father feels sending his child out to help her mother walk home. It was common to have children out and about on their own. This incident along with Lucy's death were both well know to the "common life" that Wordsworth talks about in his Preface. 

The last key component I wanted to discuss was how Wordsworth complicated his own ideologies in his poetry. In "Lucy Gray" at the end I don't feel a tearing sadness, nor an overflow of happiness, rather a calm for Lucy. Wordsworth had previously stated that the reader should feel an "overflow of powerful feelings," but he also stated in his Preface the reader should feel an "overbalance of pleasure." For me its hard to take the poem of "Lucy Gray" feels more like a story. I get a sense of calm which is neither an "overflow of powerful feelings" or an "overbalance of pleasure." This contradicts and complicates Wordsworth's Preface. In line 58 Wordsworth writes "She is a living Child," giving her life through nature, which aids the blow of the tragic outcome. Instead of feeding his reader with an ending of intense emotion he softens the blow, and gives her life in a new form. For me, it complicated what Wordsworth was previously stating how the reader should feel in the Preface.

Wordsworth's poetry has aspects that follow his ideologies in the Preface, yet he also contradicts and complicates his ideologies within his poetry. In my eyes, every aspect and way of view is placed on the reader. Each reader is different and able to come up with different ways of viewing a piece of work, for me Wordsworth is full of parallels are contradictories, for others his poetry equals his ideologies.

Works Cited

Black, Joseph Laurence. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2007. Print.