By William Wordsworth (1770-1850) - He was born on 7th April in Cockermoth, Cumberland in the Lake District. The beauty of the region and stunning landscape provided him with the perfect setting and inspiration to write poems about nature. In 1804, he wrote the poem "Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", a poem also known as "The Daffodils". His sister Dorothy, played an important part in his life and she also influenced him with her love of nature. The inspiration to write this poem came while he was out walking with Dorothy near Lake Ullswater in Grasmere and they came upon some daffodils growing near the river. The poem was later revised in 1815.

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.

The poem is rich with imagery, and in the first stanza, Wordsworth describes the scene as he wanders "as lonely as a cloud". He compares himself to a solitary cloud that is floating over the valleys and the hills and then he sees a "crowd" of golden daffodils which are under the trees and beside a lake and are "fluttering and dancing in the breeze". His choice of words is soft and gentle and it is almost as if there is silent music in the background to which the daffodils are dancing. He is admiring the beauty around him and capturing a beautiful snatched moment in time that nature has presented to him. It is as if the daffodils have come alive just for him and they have an almost human like quality in the way they are behaving.

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

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

In the second stanza, he compares the daffodils to the shining stars that twinkle in the Milky Way as the number of daffodils lined near the river seem to be thousands in number. He compares the quantity of the flowers to the continuity of the stars using words like "never-ending" and "continuous". His words paint the picture of all of them dancing while they toss their heads in a "sprightly dance" There is an almost funny aspect to the flowers as they "toss" their heads like a group of dancers performing for someone on a stage.

The waves beside them danced, but they

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

What wealth the show to me had brought

In the third stanza, though he can see the waves of the river move as if in a dance it is no comparison to the performance the daffodils are providing just for him. They outdo the "sparkling" waves in a way that is exhilarating to him as he looks at the scene and the "jocund" company he is in. He cannot help but feel "gay" at the show presented to him and his choice of words like "sparkling" and "glee" and "jocund" reflect these feelings. The final line of the stanza is his indirect thanks to nature for providing him with "wealth" by putting up a show like this.

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;

And then my heart with pleasure

fills And dances with the daffodils.

In the last stanza, he describes how that scene has affected him because whenever he is indoors in his home and on his own "in the bliss of solitude" the memory of those flowers fills him with pleasure and it is as if his heart "dances with the daffodils". Again the use of words like "bliss"show his happiness each time the memory of those flowers and the way they danced that day comes back to him.

This is a beautiful but simple poem about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. The images that Wordsworth uses to describe the scene are like an artist painting a scene vividly so the reader can see it with his mind's eye. You can clearly visualise the day exactly how Wordsworth must have seen it all those years ago. It was interesting how Wordsworth gave the daffodils an almost human quality in the way they seemed to resemble dancers dancing in unison as if presenting a show. There are rhyming words at the end of every alternate line of the poem giving it both continuity and a sense of rhythm throughout.

Examples of Figures of Speech

Stanza 1

Alliteration: lonely as a cloud (line 1).

Simile: Comparison (using as) of the speaker's solitariness to that of a cloud (line 1).

Personification: Comparison of the cloud to a lonely human. (line 1)

Alliteration: high o'er vales and Hills (line 2).

Alliteration: When all at once (line 3). (Note that the w and o have the same consonant sound.)

Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to a crowd of people (lines 3-4).

Alliteration: Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,

Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to dancing humans (lines 4, 6).

.......

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The poem contains four stanzas of six lines each. In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. The stanza then ends with a rhyming couplet. Wordsworth unifies the content of the poem by focusing the first three stanzas on the experience at the lake and the last stanza on the memory of that experience.

.....

Meter

.......The lines in the poem are in iambic tetrameter, as demonstrated in the third stanza:

..........1..............2..................3...................4

The WAVES.|.be SIDE.|.them DANCED;.|.but THEY

......1................2..................3................4

Out-DID.|.the SPARK.|.ling WAVES.|.in GLEE:â€”

....1.............2.............3.............4

A PO.|.et COULD.|.not BUT.|.be GAY

......1.............2...........3............4

In SUCH.|.a JOC.|.und COM.|.pa NY:

.......1................2..................3.................4

I GAZEDâ€”.|.and GAZEDâ€”.|.but LIT.|.tle THOUGHT

...........1....................2............3...............4

What WEALTH.|.the SHOW.|.to ME.|.had BROUGHT:In the first stanza, line 6 appears to veer from the metrical format. However, Wordsworth likely intended fluttering to be read as two syllables (flut' 'RING) instead of three so that the line maintains iambic tetrameter.

Themes

1. Nature' s beauty uplifts the human spirit. Lines 15, 23, and 24 specifically refer to this theme.

2. People sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines. Lines 17 and 18 suggest this theme.

3. Nature thrives unattended. The daffodils proliferate in splendor along the shore of the lake without the need for human attention.

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