William Wordsworth may well have written his poem “Three Years She Grew up in the Sun and Shower” with his daughter Catherine in mind. Catherine died at only three years of age. We read in the first stanza about a girl named Lucy, that “Three years she grew in sun and shower.” Then Nature looks at her and sees a lovely flower, lovelier than all others, and decides to take the child to itself. “She shall be mine,” Nature declares, “and I will make / A Lady of my own.”

We readers do not quite understand exactly what this means yet. We listen as Nature describes all the things he will do for the girl. She will be “sportive as the fawn” and run “wild with glee across the lawn.” She will play in mountain springs and learn how to be silent and calm. She will float like a cloud and ride the storm. She shall love the stars and explore the secret places of the natural world. She will discover true delight when she goes to live with Nature in “this happy dell.”

In the final stanza, however, we learn exactly what Nature has in mind for Lucy. As the speaker says, “The work was done,” and Lucy died. She did indeed return to Nature, just as Wordsworth's daughter Catherine did. The speaker is now left with only his memories.