I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Analysis: On April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, located in the Lake District of England. This place is connected with much of his work.
Wordsworth’s mother passed away when he was very young, at the age of eight—this experience moulds much of his later work. William Wordsworth was one of the founding fathers of English Romanticism.
Romanticism was the liberation from those rules. It delivered the poets the liberty to write about what they feel, according to their own directions, without influence. Much like impressionism in painting, Romanticism honoured and praised emotions and imagination. It was the free-flowing motion of one’s love towards anything.
Students can also check the English Summary to revise with them during exam preparation.
He is recognized as a spiritual and epistemological speculation poet, focusing on the human relationship with nature. He was an ardent pioneer of using the vocabulary and speech patterns of common people in poetry.
Wordsworth developed a love of nature as a young man, a theme reflected in many of his poems. In 1842, he was granted a government pension, and the following year he became poet laureate.
Wordsworth’s most famous and noteworthy work, “The Prelude” (Edward Moxon, 1850), is considered by many to be perhaps the crowning achievement of English Romanticism.
The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the poet’s spiritual life and paves the way for the birth of a new poetry genre. Although he worked on the poem for a long time, it was released after his death.
Wordsworth spent the final years of his life in Rydal Mount in England, travelling and continuing his outdoor excursions. He was devastated by his daughter Dora’s death in 1847 and lost his intention to write poems.
William Wordsworth passed away at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later his death.
Background of Daffodils – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Theme
In his collection of poems, the composition Daffodils – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud was formerly published in “Poems in Two Volumes” in 1807, by the name “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. A revised version was published in 1815.
It is an iconic English poem of the Romantic Genre. Later it was popularly referred to as Daffodils.
Wordsworth penned the poem after he came across a “crowd” of daffodils along the shore of a lake while walking with his sister, Dorothy, near his home in the Lake District of England. William Wordsworth created the poem in 1804, but the circumstantial walk took place on April 15 1802.
Dorothy called that day to be a stormy one, and hence there were a lot of waves in the sea and dancing daffodils. This was the inspiration behind the poem, which we can understand quite well throughout the poem.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Summary
It is one of the most renowned poems by the poet. The poem is about a random encounter the poet has with a valley of daffodils.
The daffodils are mesmerizing and have caught the poet’s attention. The daffodils leave an everlasting impression on the poet.
He is not only startled by them at that moment; he remembers them in his secluded moments of loneliness. It is a quintessentially Romantic poem, bringing together key ideas about imagination and how natural beauty impacts humanity.
Although the poet embarks on the fact that he is lonely, the meeting with the daffodils unites him with nature and creates a feeling of togetherness. The memory of the daffodils is etched deep in the poet’s heart.
Thus we can draw an inference that nature has the ability to influence the mind of a human being deeply. The poem talks about the positive impact nature can have on human lives and how it can be the key to living a happy life.
The rustic beauty throughout the poem has been drawing the attention of all the readers throughout every generation. The lucid language is easy to comprehend, and hence the poem is readily relinquished to all audience.
Structure of I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Analysis
It consists of four stanzas of six lines each which makes the entire poem of 24 lines long.
The rhyming scheme followed for each stanza is the quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme of ABABCC. The first (A) and the second (B) lines rhyme with the third (A) and the fourth (B), respectively, i.e., there is an alternate rhyming pattern. These are succeeded by a rhyming couplet (CC).
Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter, which means there are four feet in each line.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Analysis Literary Devices
Personification is very evident throughout the entire course of the poem. Personification is enriching an inanimate object with human-like characteristics.
In the lines “Fluttering and dancing in the breeze” and “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance”, the daffodils have been personified where they are dancing like humans.
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a speech figure to highlight the importance of the situation. The phrase “Ten thousand saw I at a glance” uses hyperbole to point to the daffodils’ vast expansive range.
A simile compares two entities by using words such as “like” and “as”. The line “lonely as a cloud” depicts the similarity between the poet and a floating cloud. The phrase “Continuous as the stars” equates the stars with the daffodils in their numbers.
Assonance is the reiteration of the vowel sound in the same lines of a poem. An example in the poem would be, “They stretched in never-ending.”
Alliteration is the repetition of the consonant sound in a single line of the poem. An example in the poem would be “I gazed and gazed,” with the sound of “G” repeated.
Detailed Analysis of I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Analysis
Stanza one:
“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 poet recollected an instance when he was walking in solitude along a valley. He was in a melancholic mood. He compares himself to a cloud that floats aimlessly.
All of a sudden, he witnessed a long and bustling row of daffodils. The use of words like “crowd” and “host” clarifies that the daffodils were in huge numbers.
He further describes that the daffodils were located beside a lake and below the trees. The soft breeze made them dance and sway in their tune.
The sight of the daffodils had an emotional shift on the poet, and his mood lightened.
Stanza Two:
“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.”
The poet compares the daffodils to the twinkling belt of luminous stars in the night sky. Their enormity and brilliance are synonymous with that of the Milky Way.
The poet perceives how the flowers appear to go on without end, alongside a bay swaying in the breeze.
The speaker believes almost ten thousand or so daffodils dance cheerfully with high energy to the gliding breeze. It is a sight to behold.
Stanza Three:
“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:”
The waves in the bay were moving with joy. The beautiful daffodils outshone the dance of the waves. They seemed to be bubbling with happiness, and this delight seemed to reach the poet.
The poet was overjoyed with the company of the daffodils and could not be any happier. He contemplated their beauty for a long time without realizing how fast time was fleeting away. The daffodils’ attractive vision made time stop for the poet as he was lost in their beauty.
Although he did not realize the enriching experience he was gaining at that moment, he cherished it after some time. The visual extravaganza initially does not make him realize its value. However, he does apprehend its significance both as a source of inspiration for his poetry and spiritual well-being.
Stanza Four:
“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.”
The poet embarks upon how the daffodils have earned an everlasting place in his mind. Whenever he is lying leisurely on his couch, the thought of the startling image of the daffodils makes him drift from his solitude into a happy mood.
He expressly affirms that his heart fills with satisfaction and pleasure whenever he remembers the daffodils’ amiable, happy-go-lucky dance. Through the powers of his vision, he can join the daffodils as they dance and sway in the tunes of the breeze.
What is the main idea of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
The central theme of ‘I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud’ (Also known as ‘Daffodils’) is Happiness. It is a poem that just makes you feel good about your life. It says that even when you are alone and lonely and missing your friends, you can use your imagination to find new friends in the world.
What do the daffodils symbolize in I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
In “I wandered lonely as a Cloud,” the daffodils are like little yellow people who keep the speaker company when he is feeling lonely. The happiness of the daffodils can always cheer him up, and he can tell that they are happy because they dance. … Lines 3-4: The daffodils are personified as a crowd of people.
What is the main message of the poem Daffodils?
Answer. Answer: The theme of the poem is Nature’s Beauty with a mix of Happiness and Loneliness. The Author, Wordsworth is shown to be lonely, but when he thinks back to the Daffodils ‘dancing'(Nature’s beauty) he is happy and content.
What do Daffodils symbolize in the poem Daffodils?
The daffodil symbolizes rebirth and new beginnings. … Some sources say while he was staring at his reflection nymphs transformed him into a narcissus flower to get revenge for how he treated them. Others think he drowned trying to capture his reflection, and the flowers growing along the riverbed were named after him.