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LINES 1-2 She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, The poem's first line signals to the reader that this "She," whoever she is, is central to the poem. The speaker doesn't, however, name the main character in these first lines, and in fact won't do so till line 10. The speaker could be withholding this information for a few reasons. For now, though, it's enough to note that the incomplete information infuses the scene with mystery. (For clarity, the rest of this entry will use the name Lucy.) The language that follows enhances that mystery: Lucy "dwelt," and her "ways" were "untrodden." Each of these words is open to interpretation. "Dwelt" indicates physical activity, and its hard /d/ and /t/ sounds give it a rock-like finality that emphasizes what the reader will soon learn—that is, that Lucy hunkered down and hardly left this place. But the word is also pretty vague, and could refer to any activity, really. How Lucy actually spent her time is still a mystery (and will remain so for the entire poem). Then comes "untrodden," one of the poem's most important words. Literally, it means "not walked on," trodden being the participle of tread, which means to walk. So this would mean that Lucy's "ways," which refer generally to the place where she lived, were undiscovered territory. This physical definition, however, leads to the more abstract one. If Lucy's home received few visitors, then Lucy received few visitors. And that would mean few people got the chance to know her (sure enough, the speaker will soon confirm this). As such, Lucy herself is "untrodden." Sealed up behind her fair, modest virtue is a character that even the speaker, who loved her and knew her, must still describe as "Half hidden." As if to reflect that its own character isn't entirely knowable, the first line follows a meter that doesn't exactly fit within the standard form. The line is supposed to follow iambic tetrameter, which would give it eight syllables in total, but it has one extra: She dwelt among the untrodden ways This small quirk signals that even though this ballad, with its steady meter and near-perfect rhymes, will sound at many points like a nursery rhyme, it will also have moments of transcending its form. In line 1, that rule-breaking draws attention to "untrodden," which is, again, a keyword in the poem. To fit the meter, its last two syllables, "trodden," would need to be compressed into one, and they nearly are, imitating a fast version of the stepping they describe. The reader may also, however, choose to emphasize the word differently: untrodden. In this case, the action, "trod," is emphasized, signaling the speaker's intention to cover some territory in remembering Lucy and make up for the fact that, in life, she went unappreciated. And in line 2, the speaker proves that there is in fact territory to cover. Lucy lived "Beside the springs of Dove," or near the place in the English countryside (specifically, the Midlands, a rural area south of Manchester) where the Dove River rises from the earth and begins its southward flow. Lucy, in other words, is not a figment of the speaker's imagination; she was a real person who lived in a real place that the speaker can actually point to. This physical position suggests a few things about Lucy's character. First, the word "springs" reminds the reader that even though Lucy is dead (the speaker hasn't stated this yet, but it can be inferred from the use of the past tense), there is an eternal quality to the place she lived; the river keeps flowing. Her position "Beside" the river is notable as well. Later, Lucy will be described as occupying marginal space (see line 5). In the same way that, in line 1, she is "among" the "ways" of the countryside, she is "Beside" the river, almost a natural part of the landscape who never loudly announced her presence or demanded more space than she needed.