They made her a grave, too cold and damp for a soul so warm and true; and she’s gone to the lake of the dismal swamp, where, all night long, by a fire-fly lamp, she paddles her white canoe. “and her fire-fly lamp i soon shall see, and her paddle i soon shall hear; long and loving our life shall be, and i’ll hide the maid in a cypress tree, when the footstep of death is near.” who is the speaker in this section of the poem? the maiden paddling the canoe the lover searching for his lost bride an unknown observer of the incident the hired paddler of the canoe

The first two stanzas of Thomas Moore’s “The Lake of the Dismal Swamp” are words spoken by a man who is looking for a woman who has passed away, indicated because she is now in "a grave.” These two stanzas are written in the first person, are framed by quotation marks, and explain the man’s aim - to find his lover again, and protect her from death.

The following stanza of the poem (the third stanza, not included in the question) begins "Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds— / His path was rugged and sore." The use of the third person in that next stanza signifies that we have transitioned to a different point of view - from someone who is observing the character (“he”) who was speaking at the beginning of the poem. While there are some additional lines of speech from the man in the rest of the poem, the rest of the story is told mainly from the point of view of the introduced narrator, who follows the man seeking out the Dismal Swamp and his lover.

the mending wall was written by robert frost