<br>

POETRY
<br>

LUCY GRAY
WILLlAM WoRDSWORTH

TEXT:

Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:

And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at
break of day
The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a humnan door!
You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.

"To-night will be a stormy night

You to the toWn must go;
And take a lantern, Child, to light
Your mnother through the snow."
"That, Father! will I gladly do:
"Tis scarcely afternoon
The minster-clock has just struck two,
And yonder is the moon!"
At this the Father raised his hook,
And snapped a faggot-band;
He plicd his work;-and Lucy took
The lantern in her hand.
<br>

English (AEC)
Suhrid Compulsory

blither is the moiuntain roe:

Not
With many a
wanton stroke
snoW,
Her feet disperse the powdery
That rises up like smoke.
time:
The storm cane on before its
She wandered up and down;
climb:
And many a hill did Lucy
But never reached the town.

The wretched parents all that night

Went shouting far and wide;
But there was neither sound nor sight
To serve them for a guide.

At day-break oron a hill they stood

That overlooked the moor;
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.

They wept-and, turning homeward, cried,

"In heaven we all shall meet;"
-Whern in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downwards from the steep

hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn
hedge,
And by the long stone-wall;

And then an open field

they crossed:
The marks were still
the same;
They tracked them on, nor ever
And to the bridge lost;
they came.
<br>

Lucy Gray 5

They followed from the snowy bank

Those footmarks, one by one,
Into the middle of the plank;
And further there were none!

-Yet some maintain that to this day

She is a living child;
That you may see sweet Lucy Gray
Upon the lonesome wild.

O'er rough and smooth she trips along,

And never looks behind;
And sings a solitary song
That whistles in the wind.

WORD MEANINGS

Stanza 1 :
oft - often (3<R);
-
wild an uninhibited place (G HR 3);
-
chanced come upon, as if by accident, meet with (231R

-
break of day dawn (OR);
-
solitary lonely (4).
:
Stanza 2

mate - friend ();

-
comrade friend or companion ( Ì);
-
dwell be an inhabitant of (1|0 4IA DA)

Stanza 3:
spy - watch or catch sight of (95);
fawn
- a young deer (1Aa 4*):
-
hare rabbit (4ACAIA)
<br>

Suhrid Compulsory English (AEC)

6

Stanza 4 :
case (T)
lantern
-
light in a transparent protective
Stanza 5:
scarcely - barely or hardly (H(414);
large churches.
minster any of certain cathedrals and
-
a monastery (7y73 bI).
usually originally connected to
yonder - distant but within sight (7i8A
ACKJ
PE (T A/E
Stanza 6

faggot
- a
bundle of sticks and branches bournd together

(QD1A e
Y

pile place things one on top of the other

-
ARI )

Stanza 7:
blithe happy and without worry (qi q4R (OA gER C):
-

roe - (here) deer (a roe deer is a small deer which lives in

woods in Europe and Asia) (4ILA CaT ÍR):
wanton - playful ((3130);
-
disperse scatter (2fy3 aíDCA)
Stanza 8 :

wander go astray (Rgn)

Stanza 9:
wretched - miserable (7iA)
Stanza 10 :
overlook - have a view of from above (6 CALA CT);
moor - an area of open and usually high land with poor
soil that is covered mainly with grass and heather (4B

Efec WIgE);
-
thence from that place or from there (GE SAI (RILE);
<br>

Lucy Gray 7

furlong - a unit of length cqual to two hund red and twenty

Satnza11:
spy -
catch sight of (y12,1bA 31)
Stanza 12 :
the outside limit of an object, area, or surface <A7
- (
edge

-
track go after with the intent to find (1 fg Citaa GI
(RUAIA);

hawthorn a thorny shrub or tree of the rose family, with

-

white, pink, or red blossom and small dark red fruits

(AIŠDI GI):
g
(haws) (Gi11, A7l, CG1t
hedge - a fence or boundary formed by a row of closely
planted shrubs or bushes (|9RIK
TI
aD GHS3 Si2
R

Stanza 14 :
bank - a long, high mass or mound of a particular substance

plank - a long narrow piece of wooden board, used

especially for making structures to walk on (OA VGI

Stanza 15 :
-
lonesome remote and unfrequented (7s<O qR f4gG);
wild - an uninhabited, uncultivated, or inhospitable place

Stanza 16 :
- to
trip walk with light quick steps (aD 5
FT GcA RO
1GA1);
<br>

Lucy Gray
9
<br>

Suhrid Compulsory English (AEC)

10

79

he
En
the
W
sec
Ma

bf
ABOUT THE POET
pr
N
-
William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 April 23, 1850)
William Wordsworth, a great romantic poet, was born onA:
7 April 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumbria, England to Johnpo
Wordsworth, an attorney and his wife Anne. He was theo
second of their five children. While still young WilliamD
Wordsworth lost both his parents. After studying in St John'sec
College, Cambridge he went to France where he was inspiredA
by the events and the politics of the French Revolution. He fellC
in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who bore him
a daughter named Caroline, but financial crisis and Britain'sp
relation with France compelled WordsWorth to return to
England the next year. The reign of terror disillusioned
Wordsworth with the French Revolution and Britain's
problematic relations with France prevented Wordsworth
from meeting Annette for quite some time. After temporary
restoration of normalcy between Britain and France
Wordsworth along with his sister Dorothy, visited France tol
meet Annette and Caroline.
Williamn Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
another notable Romantic poet, in 1795 and the Creativity
both the pocts reached their heights. Wordsworth of

known for his work "Lyrical Ballads" -a collection of

is best
poems
Wordsworth wrote in collaboration with Samuel Taylo
<br>

Lucy Gray 11

Coleridge. The Romantic movement in English literature is said

to have begun with the publication of "Lyrical Ballads" in
1798. Wordsworth and Coleridge travelled in Germany over
to
the winter of 1798-1799. Wordsworth then returned
England and settled with his sister Dorothy in Grasmere, in
the Lake District. In the beauteous surroundings of nature
Wordsworth found his creativity flowing and he published the
second volume of "Lyrical Ballads" in 1800. In 1802 he married
Mary Hutchinson. While living in Grasmere he composed some
of hís most famous poems including "I wandered Lonely as a
Cloud" and "Ode: Intimations of Mortality" - as well as the
prose work "A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the
North of England" (1822).
In 1813, the Wordsworths moved to Rydal Mount,
Ambleside. He became immensely popular and was named
poet laureate in 1843, succeeding Robert Southey. He
composed works like "The Excursion" (1814) and "The River
Duddon" (1820), but his radical friends were annoyed by the
conservatism of his later works. William Wordsworth died on
April 23, 1850 of pleurisy and was buried at St. Oswald's
Church, in Grasmere.
The central themes of his poetry remain nature and
pantheism: The major works of Wordsworth include
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)
"Simon Lee"
"We are Seven"
• "Lines Written in Early Spring"
"Expostulation and Reply"
•
"The Tables Turned"
•
"The Thorn"
"Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"
Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800)
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
<br>

Suhrid Compulsory English (AEC)

12

"Strange fits of passion have I known"

• "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways"
• "Three years she grew"
"A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal"
"I travelled among unknown men"
"Lucy Gray"
"The Two April Mornings"
"Nutting"
"The Ruined Cottage"
"Michael"
"The Kitten At Play"
C

Poems, in Two Volumes (1807)

"Resolution and Independence"
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also known
"Daffodils"
"My Heart Leaps Up"
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
"Ode to Duty"
"The Solitary Reaper"
"Elegiac Stanzas"
"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September
1802"
"London, 1802"
• "The World Is Too Much with Us"
•
Guide to the Lakes (1810)
•
"To the Cuckoo"
• The Excursion (1814)
• Laodamia (1815, 1845)
.
The Prelude (1850)
<br>

Lucy Gray
13

SUMMARY

The first line of the first stanza introduces the principal

character of the poem, Lucy Gray. The speaker says that he
had often heard of the child Lucy Gray and one day while
crossing the wild he had come upon that solitary child at
dawn. This stanza provides the setting of the poem and
arouses the reader's curiosity about Lucy Gray.
Emphasising Lucy's solitarinesss, the speaker says that
Lucy did not have any friend or comnpanion. She lived on a
wide moor and was the sweetest thing that ever grew beside
a
human door.
Talking directly to the readers, the speaker says that they
may catch sight of a fawn playing and witness a hare úpon
the green grass as before but they will never see the sweet face
of Lucy Gray anymore. Here the speaker reveals that
something tragic has happened to Lucy Gray and that has
saddened the heart of the speaker.
In the next stanza the speaker quotes what Lucy's father
had told her which eventually caused Lucy the tragedy. Her
father had asked her to go to town to help her mother return
home through the snow and had told her to carry a lantern
with her as the night would be stormy.
Quoting Lucy's reply, thespeaker states how she obediently
agrees to comply with her father's order. She said that it was
scarcely afternoon and the church clock had just struck two
while the moon was also visible in the sky. She assured her
father that she would set out for town in due time.
On receiving Lucy's assurance her father resumed his work
of piling branches while Lucy took the lantern in her hand
ready for departing to town.
to town in a
The speaker's description of Lucy's departure
happy and playful mood emphasises the innocence of the little
girl and at the samme time arouses the reader's
sorrow in
<br>

(AEC)
Suhrid Compulsory Engish leaving
14 while The
Lucy's jovial tnood suffers.
anticipation of Lucy's doom. poignancy of what Lucy mountain
town heightens the to the buoyant over the
for compared playfully
cheerful nature of Lucyway is walking rose like srnokt
her to town which
deer. Lucy made snOw dust tirme and
scattering the its
come before wandering
Powdery snow storm had
But unfortunately the storm. She ept on mother but she
way in the
little Lucy manylost her an attempt to reach her
hills in town.
climbing way to the home and
never find her returned
could
Lucy's mother had way in the storm,
Meanwhile,
tlheir daughter had lost her far that stormy
realising that searched for Lucy near and
frantically shouting for Lucy
they Panic-stricken, they went On nor any sight of
night. sound
neither any parents their
throughout the night but towards
the wretched
guide
Lucy could night her
daughter. storm-tossed
to find Lucy in the turbulent for their daughter
6
Unable miserable. Anxious the
parents felt helpless and crack of dawn
search for Lucy at the moor from
resumed their overlooking the
they stood on a hill was two hundred
next day. They which
they saw the wooden bridge door.
where away from their
yards Lucy, they
and twenty despaired, finding no
no trace of meet
Dejected and g with the cry that they would
weeping with caught sight
turned homeward, suddenly Lucy's mother
heaven, when
Lucy in
footprints in the snow.
of Lucy's little may find Lucy, they tracked
that they
With a spark of hope edge of the steep hill through the
the stone-wall
her footmarks fromhedge, passing by the long
broken hawthorn the same footmarks they
an open field. Tracking footmarks one by one from
crossing Following the on
to the bridge. of the plank
walked
snowy they walked into the middleanymore of those
the bank no longer saw
they plank into
the stream when further Lucy might have fallen off the
small footprints. Little disappeared. Lucy is never
stream in the stormy night and
the or alive.
found again, either dead
<br>

Lucy Gray
15
Yet somne people believe that Lucy is still a living child
is seen in remote uninhibited places.She walks over
and
rough and
smooth land and never looks behind. As she skips Over the
wild
fields,Lucy sings a solitary song that the blowing wind carries
with it. This suggests that as Lucy left for town to help her
mother return home, she skipped over the snow
happily
singing a song before she disappeared that stormy night. Little
innocent Lucy did, not probably understand that the
treacherous storm would cause her tragedy. She could not
notice the approach of the perilous storm. The happy
spirit of
Lucy, skipping over the snow merrily, implies that she
disappeared happily hop-skipping over the snow that fateful
night.
<br>

(AEC)
Compulsory English
Suhrid
16

f
the

is

m
ar

la
S

21|
<br>

Lucy Gray 17

ANALYSIS

It is this happy spirit of lively young Lucy that the speakerof

speaks of having scen one day at dawn in the first stanza
the poenm. He had often heard the story of Lucy's spirit been
coen in the wild which he had chanced to witness that day.
Lucy suffers death in all the poems. In this poem, which
is not included in the five Lucy poems, Lucy disappearnes too.
Wordsworth has portrayed Lucy as a child of nature and her
disappearance depicts her return tonature. Her love for nature
has been portrayed in the very beginning of the poem when
Wordsworth depicts her dwelling on the moor happily
without any friend or companion. Although Lucy disappeares,
Wordswortn has kept her alive through supernatural
mechanism making her fuse with nature where she belongs
and where she happily dwells.
Lucy departs all too soon as being an ideal personification
of nature she cannot exist long in the flawed human world.
Her joyous spirit could only find a perfect expression in the
lap of nature. The human world, as flawed as ever, could be
said to be represented here in the irresponsible and careless
attitude of Lucy's father towards her. Had her father been
more responsible the tragedy of Lucy's disappearance could
have been averted.
Nature, childhood, imagination, supernaturalism are some
features of romantic poetry. In romantic poetry where
childhood becomes an important theme the child is featured
as innocent, deserving protection and intrinsically close to
nature. Wordsworth's portrayal of children was influenced by
the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke who
wrote about children's education, moral development and
Consciousness.
In the "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads" Wordsworth
announced that it was his intention to "choose incidents and
situations from common life...in a selection of language really
used by men". Wordsworth considers man and nature as
essentially adapted to each other and hence he portrays the
Close relationship between man and nature in most of his
English (AEC)
-2
<br>

English (AEC)
Suhrid Compulsory
18 to tH
Wordsworth adheres
poems. In the poem "Lucy Gray" to the Lyrical Ballade
in the "Prcface
rules he set out define
to
where Lucy an
of "Lucy Gray"
Nature is the driving force shaping influence of nature ovd
nature are intertwined. The cven when she no longer belond,
Lucy cannot be climinatcd
to the world of the living Ballads" suggests the poems include
As the title "Lyrical them. TH
lyrical elements in
here are ballads and combine stanza2.
poem "Lucy Gray" is a ballad
consisting of sixteen
cach and has the rhyme scheme abab. In th
having four lines boldly proclaims that there is
"Preface" Wordsworth
of prose and that 3.
d

essential difference between the language

composition and declares his intention to write poetr
metrical
common men to mark a shift from the ne
1n the language of
-
classical style of writing poetry that used
erudite language
poems are written in lucid language that is easill 4.
Hence, his Gray", ofcours
comprehensible by common people. "Lucy poem fully manifes
is no exception in this regard.The
Wordsworth's theory of poetic style. 5.

7
<br>

Lucy Gray
19

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS

1. Who wrote the poem "Lucy Gray"?

a:William Wordsworth b. William Shakespeare
c. William Blake d. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2
Which line of the poem introduces the character Lucy Gray?
a.
first line b. second line
C. third line
d. fourth line
3. How frequently did the speaker hear of Lucy Gray?
a. often
b. regularly
rarely
c.
d. none of the above
4. When did the speaker see Lucy Gray?
a. while crossing the road
b. while crossing the wild
c. while crossing the bridge d. while crossing the river
5. At what timne of the day
did the speaker see Lucy Gray?
a. at night b. at evening
C. at dusk d. at dawn
6. Which adjective does the speaker use to refer to Lucy Gray
in the
first stanza of the poem?
a. beautiful b. lovely
ssolitary d. wild
7. "No mate, no Lucy knew."
a. pet b. pupPY

S comrade d. father
8. Where did Lucy dwell?
a. on wide moor
a
b. in a beautiful house
c. in a
metropolitan city d. in a small village
9. Whom does the speaker refer to as 'the sweetest thing?
a. the fawn b. the hare
C.
Lucy Gray d. Lucys mother
<br>

Suhrid Compulsory English (AEC)

20

10. What might be spied at play?

b.thehare
á. the fawn d.Lucy'smother
c. Lucy Gray

11. What is a fawn?

a. horse b. rabbit
young deer d. duck
c.
12. Where might the hare be seen?
a. in the
b. upon the green
river
C.
on the bridge d. inside the house

13. What, áccording to the speaker, will never more be seen?

a. the sweet face of Lucy Gray b. thesweetfaceof Lucy's mot

thesweetfaceof Lucy's father d.d. none of the above
14. Where did Lucy's father ask her to go?
a. to the city b. to the village
C. to the town d. to the bridge
15. What did Lucy's father tell her to carry?
a. a torch b. a lantern

C. a candle
d. a bulb
16. Why did Lucy's father tell her to carry a
lantern?
a. to
guide her mother through the snow
b. toguideher brotherthroughthesnow
C. toguideher sister throughthesnow

d. toguideher uncle throughthesnow

17. How was the night supposed to
be?
a. calm
b. beautiful
cstormny d. moonlit
18. How would Lucy carry out her father's order?
a.
a gloomily
c. sadly
b. gladly
d. humbly
<br>

Lucy Gray
21
was what time of the day when Lucy's father asked her to help
19. It
het,mother retu rn homc?
Awooclock in the afternoon b. thrcc oclock in the aftern0on
c.
four o'clock in the evening d. five o'clock in the evening

0 What did Lucy's father do'immediately after asking her tohelp

her mother?
a. went to bring the lantern for Lucy

. b. went with Lucy to show her the way to town

resumed his work of piling branches
d. went inside the house to take rest

.
21. How did Lucy walk towards the town?

in
a
happy and playful mood
c. in a depressed way
b. in an angry mood
d. none of the above
22. What happened to the snow as Lucy walked over it?
a the scattered snow dust rose like smoke behind Lucy
b. the snow became black with the dirt of Lucy's feet
c.
the snow melted
d. none of the above
23. When did the stormn come?

. a. after it was supposed to come

before it was supposed to come
C. exactly whern
it was supposed to come
d. the storm never came
24. What did Lucy do in the storm?
a. she wandered up and down and climbed many hills
b. she took shelter in her
friends cottage
c.
sheslept peacefully during the storm
d. she met her mother during the storm

.
25. When did Lucy reach
the town?
a. before
the storm b. after the storm
C.
during the storm Lucy never reached the town
26. How did Lucy's parents feel
that night?
a. relieved
b. happy
<br>

Compulsory English (AEC)

Suhrid
22.
d. they did not tel anything
kwretched 34.

did Lucy's parents do all the night?

27. What Lucy throughout the
night
went on shouting for
A they their neighbours to search for Lucy 35
b. they asked
slept peacefully
c.
they had their diner and a missing complal
d. they went to the police stalion and lodged
search for Lucy?
28. What was the result of their
36.

caught a glimpse of Lucy behind a tree

a. they
cry in the distance
b. they heard Lucy's
nor any sight of Lucy
&they neither found any sound 37

d. none of the above

29. What did Lucy's parents do at day-break?
a. they went to the police station to inquire about Lucy
b.
theystood on a hill overlooking the moor and searched for Lu
c.
they went to their neighbour's house to know about Lucy
d. they had their breakfast in peace
30. What did Lucy's parents see from the hill that overlooked
moor? 38
a. they saw the wooden bridge b. they saw their neighboy
house
c. they saw the police station d. they saw the rainbow
31. How far was the wooden bridge
from their door?
a. two hundred
and twenty four yards away from their door

.b. two hundred and twenty three

d. two
yards away from their door
two hundred and twenty yards away
from their door
3

hundred and nineteen yards away from

32. Furlong is their door
the unit for measuring
a. temperature b. distance
C. weight
d. speed
33. Where did Lucy's parents
hope to meet Lucy when they
find her? could

. a. in the river
in heaven
b. in a different country
d. in the town
<br>

Lucy Gray
23
21 What did Lucy's mother see in the snow?
a. Lucy's hair
c. Lucy's dress
6. Lucy's footmarks
d. Lucy's lantern
35, Who caught sight
of Lucy's little footprints in the snow?
arLucy's mother b. Lucy's father
c.
Lucy's neighbour
d. Lucy's friend
36. Fromn where
did Lucy's parents start tracking Lucy's footmarks?
from the edge of the steep hillb. from
c. from
their door
the wooden bridge d. from their neighbour's cottage
37, Mention the places
where Lucy's parents tracked her footmarks.
edge of the steep hill, the broken hawthorn hedge,
stone-wall, an open field, the bridge, the snowy by the long
bank, middle of the
plank
b. their own house, their neighbour's house,in front of the police
station
c.
in the fisherman's hut, on the roof of the
vegetable seller, in the
horseman's stable
d. none of the above
38. Where did Lucy's
footmarks end?
a. into
the middle of the plank on the streanm
b. on the hills
c. in
front of Lucy's house
d. in the town
39. What do somne people
believe still today?
a. that Lucy was
kidnapped
b. that Lucy lives happily in the town
that Lucy is still a living child
d. that the police killed her
40. Where might Lucy be still seen?
a.
in her parents's house
6. in remote uninhibited places
c. in
her friend's coltage
d. nowhere
<br>

Compulsory English (AEC)

Suhrid
24
seen doing?
41. What is Lucy
a. crying at night
b. frightening
children
over the wild ficlds
v. skipping
d. cursing her father over rough and sm
never look asshe walks
42. Where does Lucy
land? b. at the left side
a. at the right side
C. in front
d. behind
over the wild fields?
43. What does Lucy do while skipping
a. recites poems
b.
'sings a solitary song
disturbs otherS
c.
d. plucks wild flowers
44. Lucy's solitary song
a
whistles in the wind
b. makes the wind stop blowing
c. frightens the birds and insects
d. causes a wild storm
45. Lucy has become a part of
a. wind
b.river
C. hills d. nature
46. When was the poemn "Lucy Gray"
written?
a. 1700
b. 1750
e. 1799
d. 1800
47. When was the poem "Lucy Gray" published?
a. 1700
b. 1750
C. 1799
d. 1800
48. Where wasthepoem"LucyGray"published?
a. in the
first volume of "Lyrical
Ballads"
5. in the second volume of "Lyrical Ballads"
c. in
the "Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads"
d. none of the above
<br>

Lucy Gray
25
49.The poem "Lucy Gray" is a
A. ballad b. sonnet
c. haiku d. elegy

ANSWERS

1, a. William Wordsworth, 2. a. first line, 3. a. often, 4. b.

while
crossing the wild, 5. d. at dawn, 6. c. solitary, 7. C. comrade, 8.
a. on a wide moor,
9. C. Lucy Gray, 10. a. the fawn, 11. C. young
deer, 12. b. upon the green, 13. a. the swect face of Lucy Gray,
14. c. to the toWn, 15. b. a lantern, 16. a. to guide
her mother
through the snoW, 17. c. stormy, 18. b. gladly, 19. a. two oclock
in the afternoon, 20. c. resumed his work of piling branches, 21.
a. in a happy and playful
mood, 22. a. the scattered snow dust
rose like smoke behind Lucy, 23. b. before it was
come, 24. a. she wandered up and
supposed to
down and climbed many
hills, 25. d. Lucy never reached the town, 26. c. wretched, 27. a.
they went on shouting for Lucy throughout the night, 28. c. they
neither found any sound nor any sight of Lucy,29. b. they stood
on a hilloverlooking the moor and searched for Lucy, 30. a. they
saw the wooden bridge, 31. c. two hundred and twenty yards
away from their door, 32. b. distance, 33. c. in heaven, 34. b.
Lucy's footmarks,35. a. Lucy's mother, 36. a. from the edge of the
steep hill, 37. a. edge of the steep hill, the broken hawthorn
hedge, by the long stone-wall, an open field, 38. a. into the
middle of the plank on the stream, 39. c. that Lucy is still a living
child, 40. b.in remote uninhibited places, 41. c.skipping over the
wild fields, 42. d. behind, 43. b. sings a solitary song, 44. a.
whistles in the wind, 45. d. nature, 46. c. 1799, 47. d. 1800, 48.
b. in the second volume of "Lyrical Ballads", 49.
a. ballad