Lucy Gray : A Critical Note

Lucy Gray is not one of wordsworth's Lucy poems which were written under the inspiration of Rousseau's Emile. It is rather a traditional form of ballad in which the poet narrates a tragic story of a lonely girl of the moor. She was sent by her father to go on a look out for her mother who went to town. The girl on her way was lost in the snow storm on the moor. The story of Lucy Gray was based on a real incident narrated by Wordsworth. The death of the girl really happened at Halifax.This is not a typical Wordsworthian poem in which Nature is depicted as a source of joy. Here nature is terrible in the form of snowstorm which causes death to an innocent village girl. In the Lucy poems Lucy who was brought up by Nature also died . But her death is not so tragic as that Lucy Gray's. But in Lucy poems Wordsworth feels that Lucy after her death on the heath is not lost. The poet speaks of his own personal belief " O, the difference to me!".Lucy in the poem 'The Education of Nature' after her premature death remains alive in the elements of the heath. Here also the poet more in the spirit of a ballad writing refers to the popular belief that she is alive and is heard singing a solitary song.
Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee (RBSir)