A lament on behalf of all people who go through life unnoticed and unappreciated – or at least believe they are. Trust in God who loves and appreciates us even when it seems no one else does.
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
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!
This poem of Wordsworth’s reminds me of John Donne’s “No man is an island entire of its self; every man is a part of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away, Europe is the less, as well as if the promontory were, as well as a manor of thy friends or if thine were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne, ‘Meditation XVII’.
Thank you for the reminder that we are connected, whether we realize it or not.
I love how you have linked Wordsworth’s poem to Donne’s. The realization we matter and are all connected is something that can keep us going even in the darkest of times.