[University of Michigan, 2007]
In 1804, William
Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy took a walk near Ullswater Lake in
northwestern England. Dorothy was so
taken aback by the beauty of the daffodils that she made a note of them in her
journal. Three years later, William
published a poem about those same flowers.
Titled “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud,” it was republished in 1815 as the
version well-known today.[1]
The title portrays nature as
comparable to a lonely man by using a simile.
Perhaps it is because of the cloud’s lonely and drifting qualities that
nature is later able to console the man.
The poet describes an encounter with a group of golden daffodils near a
lake, and relates how the daffodils later lift his spirits. Triggered by the beauty of daffodils,
Wordsworth wrote the poem to show that nature can mitigate solitude in a very
powerful way.
The poem is divided into four
stanzas, each stanza being six lines long with a rhyme scheme of ababcc. The first three stanzas describe the
daffodils that the poet comes across, and the last stanza explains the
experience of recollecting the daffodils.
The meter is in iambic tetrameter, which gives the work a steady rhythm
and continuous flow, just as the daffodils are “Continuous as the stars that
shine” (line 7). This continuity and
smoothness provides for a soothing reading, a pleasing sound to the listener’s
ear, and possesses an expectedness in syllables and rhyme that allows the
reader to know exactly what is coming.
This certainty is just as promising as knowing that the stars will
shine, spring will come, or that the sun will rise each day.
The first two lines strive to show
the extent of the poet’s solitude: the
writer feels as alone as a drifting cloud, high above the world and looking
down on valleys and hills. The author
chose a cloud as the force of nature to compare himself to, because clouds
drift according to the forces of the wind, and a single cloud floating along is
like someone wandering through the world, lost and alone. The use of a cloud is effective because of
its movement, and would not have worked had it been a lonely rock or a single
tree.
Personification is an important element
in this poem, and is first seen in line 3 when the daffodils are referred to as
a “crowd” (line 3). Later in the poem,
they have the capacity to dance in line 7, toss their heads in like 12, be
joyful in line 14, and dance once again in like 24. Giving an object humanistic characteristics
makes that object extraordinary and powerful, and the daffodils in this poem
certainly have the power to ease the poet’s solitude later in the poem.
In line 4, assonance is used with an
“o” sound in “host” and “golden.” The
word “host,” which can mean someone that welcomes or greets, is used to make
the daffodils a welcoming change from the poet’s solitude as he drifts in
loneliness. “Host” and “golden” also
have the same sound as “hello”, a welcoming word. Alliteration can be found in line 5, with
beside and beneath, as literal imagery is used to get the reader to picture
exactly where the daffodils are and the manner in which they are moving. In lines 7-9, however, the writer switches to
figurative imagery, likening the daffodils to stars with another simile as well
as an allusion. Lines 7-8 incorporates
assonance with “continuous,” “twinkle,” and “milky,” bringing to mind the
imagery of sparkling stars dotted in the sky like the dots in the “i”
sound.
The daffodils continue to be
glorified in lines 13-16, outdoing waves in happiness (an emotion only
conceivable in humans) and being referred to as the poet’s company, again
personifying the flowers. Lines 17-19
show the poet’s underestimate of the power of the daffodils; twice he gazes at
the daffodils (identical rhyme) but only once does the speaker actually stop to
think about the happiness the flowers bring.
Finally, in the last stanza, the
poet realizes the true power of nature.
A linked rhyme is used in lines 18-19 in “brought” and “oft” and
alliteration is found in “brought,” “oft” and “on.” The speaker remembers the sight of the
daffodils while alone on a couch with eyes closed, the “bliss of solitude”;
internal rhyme is used here with “is” and “bliss.”
“I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” begins with feelings of seclusion and
carelessness, as the speaker wanders through the hills without companionship;
the mood is gloomy. By the end of the poem, however, the daffodils have
provided the companionship and consolation that the poet needed, and the mere
thought of the flowers brings happiness and joy to the once-lonely and drifting
speaker: “And then my heart with
pleasure fills/And dances with the daffodils.”
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