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5. PARALLELISM In stanzas 1 and 2, parallelism links descriptions of Lucy, contributing to the poem’s nursery-rhyme quality and commenting on the speaker’s struggle to remember and represent Lucy. There are two parallel phrases in question: 1. “A Maid whom there were none to praise / And very few to love” 2. “A violet by a mossy stone / Half hidden from the eye!” Both describe Lucy, and they appear back-to-back, linking stanza 1 with stanza 2. Each phrase starts with a description that names Lucy, in a sense (in the first, she's a "Maid," and in the second she's a "violet"). The second clause ("And very few to love" and "Half hidden from the eye") complicates that introductory description. The reader can think of it as a "complicating clause." The first effect of the similar syntax is to emphasize the poem's rhythm, which sounds straight out of a nursery rhyme. This formal quality is curious in a poem about grief. It's as if the speaker is trying to conceal, or at least control, his or her sadness with the steady, almost happy beat. This particular repetition and poem's general measuredness also, however, remind the reader that the cycle of loving and losing is so universal that it can fit into what sounds like a readymade form. The parallelism also reveals something about the relationship between the literal and metaphorical in the poem. The first phrase describes Lucy literally. While she lived, "there were none to praise" her and "very few" people loved her. Yes, these lines have metaphorical qualities as well. Praise, for example, can mean a few different things. But more than anything else, they sound like a statement of fact. And that fact—ignorance of Lucy—is exactly what necessitates the metaphorical language of stanza 2. The reader will notice right away that line 5 is metaphorical; there's not much evidence out there to suggest that the speaker thought of Lucy as a literal flower. This metaphor follows the colon that end-stops line 4. It is a direct response to that first description of Lucy, as if the speaker were attempting to make up for how unappreciated Lucy was with a demonstration of love and admiration. With the complicating clause in line 6 ("Half hidden from the eye"), the speaker implies why he or she has to use metaphor to describe Lucy. She had an inherent mystery about her, and therefore can't be rendered with purely literal description. The parallelism also expresses the power of the speaker's metaphorical strategy. In stanza 1, the complicating clause worsens a sorry situation: Lucy was unappreciated and unloved. In stanza 2, however, it conveys the speaker's wonder. Lucy was "Half hidden from the eye!" the speaker exclaims. This metaphor is a triumph. Far from alienating the reader from Lucy, her mystery was the source of their love. Where Parallelism appears in the poem: • Lines 3-4: “A Maid whom there were none to praise / And very few to love:” • Lines 5-6: “A violet by a mossy stone / Half hidden from the eye!”