Consisting of nine rimed-stanzas, ABAB, which remain consistent throughout, as does the rhythm and meter, “The Murdered Traveller,”does not merely offer a murder mystery; it contrasts the beauty of the natural landscape with the horror of a traveling man’s murder.
The speaker is a resident of the locale, probably a small village, who knows that the murdered man’s body was found, and the speaker feels a natural melancholy infused with sympathy and empathy for the man and his family.
First Stanza: Introducing the mystery
In the first stanza, the speaker sets the scene for beauty: it was springtime, which had “[b]rought bloom and joy again.” And in the midst of this beautiful and joyful season, someone discovered the “traveller’s bones” “[f]ar down a narrow glen.”
Second and Third Stanzas: Describing the natural beauty
The speaker further describes the beautiful spring with its annual events: the tree under which the traveler was found was a “fragrant birch” whose leaves resembled “tassels in the sky.” And a riot of blooming flowers enlivened the area with their color and fragrance.
In the third stanza, the speaker reports that a “red-bird warbled, as he wrought / His hanging nest o'erhead.” And another bird, the partridge, “fearless, near the fatal spot” brought her babies.
Fourth Stanza: Speculating about the loved ones
In the fourth stanza, the speaker begins musing about the man’s loved ones, how they were “weeping far away” and how they would be watching for his return. The speaker can be sure they were “sorrowful,” because the speaker can empathize with the mourners, even though he knows they did not realize they were mourning a death and not merely an absence.
Fifth Stanza: Continuing in empathy
The speaker avers that the murdered man’s loved ones did not know their loved one had died, as they continued to anticipate his return. But the speaker can imagine the “fearful death he met,” probably crying out for his life. The traveler could not defend himself from his killer(s) because he was unarmed.
Sixth Stanza and Seventh Stanzas: What the loved ones could not know
The speaker, although he knows little, knows more than the traveler’s family does. They could not imagine as the speaker does how after the poor man was murdered, wild animals came to devour his flesh.
Also, they could not know that when their beloved’s bones were found by the distant villagers, the remains were hastily prepared and placed in an unmarked grave without anyone there to cry for him.
Eight and Ninth Stanzas: They are stilling waiting
The speaker confidently reports that the poor victim’s family and friends continued to wait and watch and even dream about their loved one. And even in their sleep, they would surely startle awake at any sound thinking it might be him coming home.
But even though the speaker knows they will never stop waiting and watching and anticipating the loved one’s return, he also knows that they “never spied / His welcome step again.” And the speaker can truthfully assert that they will never know “the fearful death he died / Far down that narrow glen.”
