Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 25-28
What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head!
"O mercy!" to myself I cried,
"If Lucy should be dead!"
- The speaker reflects on the kinds of thoughts that can pop into the head of someone who's in love. Those thoughts can be pleasant ("fond"), and they can also be totally random ("wayward") (25).
- Hey, here's a thought that popped into the speaker's head: "What if Lucy is dead?"
- Come again? Why would our speaker think that at this very moment?
- We mean, here he is, making his journey to see his beloved Lucy and—just when he gets near to her cottage—this random thought about her death jumps into his brain. What's with this guy, anyway?
- Is his alarm at this thought ("O mercy!") evidence of how much he loves her (27)? Or is he just a depressed dude who can't maintain happy thoughts? Or (option C), is this poem just showing us how—even in the midst of happiness—worry and death can intrude on our thoughts? Maybe it's a combination of all three of these.
- The poem ends without forking over an answer key, so it looks like it's up to us to answer these questions.