I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. *personification
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, *hyperbole
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. * personification
The waves beside them danced; but they * personification
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought *anaphora
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude; *stark contrast with opening line
And then my heart with pleasure fills, * lexical field of happiness
And dances with the daffodils.
William Wordsworth was a poem of the Romanticism Period. Romantic poems
characteristically praised and revered the natural world. The poem is based on one of
Wordsworth’s walks in the countryside of the Lake District. Romantic poets felt that
human connection with the natural world brought profound happiness.
In this poem the speaker is transformed by the slight of a spectacular display of daffodils,
initially lonely he finds joy in this experience that stays with him as a source of happiness
when “In vacant or in a pensive mood”. The poem is thus a celebration of the natural
world. The stark contrast between wandering “lonely as a cloud” to finding “the bliss of
solitude” by virtue of the memory of a spectacular display of daffodils conveys the
speaker’s wonderment at nature and is a testament to his belief in its importance.
The personification of the natural world permeates this poem. The daffodils form a “crowd”
and are “tossing their heads in sprightly dance”. The effect of the personification is to
elevate them to a position where humanity can relate to them and ultimately interact with
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. *personification
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, *hyperbole
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. * personification
The waves beside them danced; but they * personification
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought *anaphora
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude; *stark contrast with opening line
And then my heart with pleasure fills, * lexical field of happiness
And dances with the daffodils.
William Wordsworth was a poem of the Romanticism Period. Romantic poems
characteristically praised and revered the natural world. The poem is based on one of
Wordsworth’s walks in the countryside of the Lake District. Romantic poets felt that
human connection with the natural world brought profound happiness.
In this poem the speaker is transformed by the slight of a spectacular display of daffodils,
initially lonely he finds joy in this experience that stays with him as a source of happiness
when “In vacant or in a pensive mood”. The poem is thus a celebration of the natural
world. The stark contrast between wandering “lonely as a cloud” to finding “the bliss of
solitude” by virtue of the memory of a spectacular display of daffodils conveys the
speaker’s wonderment at nature and is a testament to his belief in its importance.
The personification of the natural world permeates this poem. The daffodils form a “crowd”
and are “tossing their heads in sprightly dance”. The effect of the personification is to
elevate them to a position where humanity can relate to them and ultimately interact with
