I can't remember a single phrase ...

but there's a poem I read many years ago, that I would dearly love to find. It has been haunting my thoughts recently!

It is a short poem, maybe one or two brief verses. In it, the author, presumably a man, writes about a woman who he loves. She is not popular or important, she does not tread paths that others tread, she is not a social butterfly. She is in the shadows, away from the crowds, not on the beaten path.

She may not mean much to the rest of the world, but she means everything to this man.

I think the last line might be something vaguely like: "But, oh, how much she means to me."

If you have any clues at all that you could share, I would be very grateful!

Is it this one?

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
- Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
(composed 1799; published 1800)

I don't know if this is the poem birdinflight has been looking for but I will thank you, kasie, for posting it because I have loved it. :) Have tried Wordsworth's other pieces of poetry but never came across this beautifully brief work of poetry by him before.

Pensive, there are some other 'Lucy' poems you may enjoy: one begins 'Strange fits of passion I have known...' and another is 'I travelled among unknown men...' and 'Three years she grew in sun and shower..'

This one is not strictly a Lucy poem as she is not mentioned by name but I always feel it belongs with them:

A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.

I love those poems too Kasie. They're really simple and beautiful. The fact that she's not there any more in life, but will be there in eternity in nature, is just to use an overworn phrase, awesome.

That is the poem, kasie! Thank you SO much. I didn't see your reply until just now, because when I checked the other day, and no one at all had responded, I was so disappointed that I was afraid to look again!

I am so glad to have this treasure of a poem, and so glad that Pensive could discover and love it, too.

I will check out the other Lucy poems you mentioned.

Wow, what a great forum this is!

Many, many thanks.