I Travelled Among Unknown Men
I TRAVELLED among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;
And she I cherished turned her wheel
Beside an English fire.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.
William Wordsworth
Much is said and debated with regards to the Lucy poems. Whether she was a real person; whether she was combination of many personalities that Wordsworth knew; or just a fictitious character he used as a literary device.
Personally, I'd rather not get into this debate, I prefer to consider her as a simple English girl whose is very much real.
This is one of my favourite poems. The imagery and picturesque descriptions are just too good. And the rhyme and the jingle only add an icing to it.
The poem quite effectively portrays Wordsworth's abilities. It shows that he was an efficient swindler and a marvellous cheater and that he could make a mickey of anybody.
How so? Allow me to elaborate.
The first half of the sonnet talks about his love for his motherland. And when he says,
'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.
We feel the spirit of pure patriotism in it. The love he bears for his country and his promise to never leave its shores ever again. However, we are only being led astray for he suddenly springs it upon us that:
Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;
And she I cherished turned her wheel
Beside an English fire.
We thus come to realise that the love for his motherland is not as pure as he makes us believe in the first two stanzas. Rather, it is driven by other motives: The simple English girl who is the object of his affection. It was here in England that he felt joy and happiness in his desire for his beloved and it was here in England where She lived and turned her wheel, he says. His patriotism is, thus, infiltrated by his worldly desires, something that true patriot shall never approve of.
The last part is almost like an "I-made-a-mickey-of-you" thing.
Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.
Here he makes it absolutely clear that it not England after all that matters, but Lucy. It's been about her all the time. England, he says, I love you because you keep alive in me the memories of my Lucy and it is for the sake of this memory that I shall never leave you. Being here I can visit and witness all the place which she would visit, and feel her in the wind.
P.S. In this manner one easily sees the fraudulence of Wordsworth.
