“Strange fits of passion I have known”
A narrative recollection of the speaker’s trip to Lucy’s cottage during the evening as the moon sinks lower throughout the journey. The speaker—who has been recounting the journey and indicating the passion he feels for Lucy—is stunned by the sudden disappearance of the moon behind Lucy's cottage. When this guiding light disappears, he wonders in fear what he would do should Lucy ever die. This moment of panic is the strange fit of passion mentioned in the title.
“She dwelt among the untrodden ways”
This poem gives a fuller portrait of Lucy. She was a beautiful and solitary maiden who resided in the remote English countryside near the River Dove. She had few suitors and generally went unnoticed by the world. Her presence on earth was short and isolated enough to impact few, but she left an indelible mark on the speaker who loved (and still loves) her dearly. He is haunted by her absence now that she is dead.
“I travelled among unknown men”
The speaker reflects upon visiting foreign lands outside of England and how it took being away from his homeland to make him fully appreciate it. This renewed love for his country leads him to proclaim that he will never leave it again. Only in the final four lines of the last stanza does Lucy finally make an appearance. Her memory is connected with the memory of England, and his love for England and Lucy are one and the same.
“Three years she grew in sun and shower"
While the poem begins with a narration by the main speaker, nature is also personified and speaks throughout much of the verse. In this poem, Lucy is depicted as maturing from child to woman after three years' time. At this time, nature takes possession of her and transforms her into the ideal woman. Nature carefully tends to her and nurtures her growth, cultivating a creature as “sportive as a fawn” who carries a quiet grace even in the stormiest of emotional circumstances. And then, once Nature has perfected her, it steals her away from others through death.
“A slumber did my spirit seal”
This short poem of just eight lines contemplates the loss of Lucy to early death in an almost objective tone lacking great depths of emotion. The speaker can seem either resigned to the inescapable realities of mortality or totally drained of the power to feel anything in light of his overwhelming loss.
