"What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head!
“O mercy!” to myself I cried,
“If Lucy should be dead!”..."See in text(Strange fits of passion have I known)
The character of Lucy is often interpreted as a personification of the speaker’s poetic muse. The mention of “fond and wayward thoughts” further indicates the dreamy, metaphorical nature of the subject matter. In the final couplet, the speaker fears the muse figure has died. The death of the muse becomes self-reflexive: these are the final lines of Wordsworth’s poem.
