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Three years she grew

 

             In William Wordsworth's Three Years She Grew, he is deeply involved with the Romantic tradition. He takes a classical Romantic approach and characterizes Lucy through Nature. When Lucy dies, Nature will allow her to grow and live through the natural beauty of the world. Also, Wordsworth personifies Nature and bestows a motherly caretaker personality to watch Lucy grow. Wordsworth also focuses on his own reverence for nature and the effects it will have on Lucy. Towards the end of the poem, there is a focus on his emotions towards Lucy's death, but it is seemingly slight. His use of form here accentuates the divine nature of Nature through his use of the divine numbers. In addition to the general shaping of the poem, his syntax declares a love for nature and its peaceful qualities.
             In the first two lines of the poem, Wordsworth quickly identifies Lucy as already belonging to nature. She "grew in sun and shower" just as a plant would and Nature herself wants Lucy for she is such a "love[ly] flower" (ln 1 and 2). In his portrayal of Lucy as a flower, she is described as a heavenly creature. She has become this divine creature through Wordsworth's experience of nature as religious. This in itself is ironic because soon, Lucy will actually become a part of nature and therefore a concrete part of Wordsworth's experience of religion. For now though, she is his angel on earth and experiences God through both nature and Lucy's own nature. .
             Nature then continues to talk of how Lucy will continue to grow and flourish in this harmony with nature and soon become a Lady through Nature's care. Lucy will become a daughter to Nature and "shall feel an overseeing power/To kindle or restrain" which will govern Lucy's actions (ln 11 and 12). Wordsworth then continues to represent his reverence of nature through the ways in which Nature would raise Lucy. .
             Through Nature, Lucy would become the perfect woman.


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