"I wandered lonely as a cloud" by William
Wordsworth
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,
5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the
milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of
a
bay:
10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in
sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the
sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be
gay,
15
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little
thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in
pensive
mood,
20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of
solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with
the daffodils.
(Cf.
<http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww260.html>)
•
Introduction
This poem was written in 1804 and it was inspired by an
event of two years early, in which the poet and his sister Dorothy came
across a "long belt" of daffodils. It was published in 1807, and a
revised version was released in 1815. This poem belongs to "Poems, in
two volumes", the event that inspired it came from an account written by
Dorothy where she described how the daffodils affected her.
(cf. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud
...section>)
In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes were published,
including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood".
(cf.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#Autobiographical_work_and_Poems_in_Two_Volumes>)
.
In this poem the poet describes his experience of the
sight of "a host of daffodils" during a lonely walk, the daffodils
delight him with her beauty and "their sprightly dance". He says "they
seem as numerous as the stars that shine in the sky"; He also remarks on
the beauty of the lake nearby, but adds that even its sparkling waves
are not so exuberant as the yellow daffodils "dancing in the breeze".
Moreover, when he is sad, he thinks of daffodils "and then my heart with
pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils", that is to say, when his
feelings are depressed, thinking of daffodils cheers him up.
(cf.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud>)
• About the poemThis short poem is one of Wordsworth’s
most famous works; it is interesting the fact that there are two
versions of the title. I do not know if it is a choice of the poet
himself or a conventional attitude of critics who came after him. But if
I pause over one of the two versions, I may suppose that "I wandered
lonely as a cloud" wants to point to the first personal pronoun"I", so
the subject is the poet; the verb "wandered" is a perception and
intellectual one, so the imagination of the poet could be the action of
the poem; moreover, the adjective "lonely" indicates the solitude of the
poet, what is more, the comparison "as a cloud" affirms his
loneliness.
(cf. <personal opinion>)
I can gather that this poem is characterized by
loneliness and imagination. Whereas the second title "daffodils" is more
objective and I just deduce that the main theme could be the nature that
surrounds the landscape and I cannot think about the presence of the
poet and how the subjectivity is so relevant in these four stanzas.
Anyway, I prefer the longest title, because it gives me a more general
opinion of the poem, without forgetting the importance role of
daffodils.
(cf. <personal opinion>)
• Analysis of the poemThis lyric poem is composed of
four sestet stanzas with octameter verse and alternate rhyme
and a final couplet (ababcc). The main themes are: the
poetic imagination that is to say the suggestion of a treasure is given
by imagination and thoughts, endlessness linked to the nature, a
pantheistic vision of the nature, inspiration, loneliness,
happiness.
(cf. <Only connect a history and anthology of
english literature with american & commonwealth insights,
p.D86-D87> and <personal opinion>)
In the first stanza, the poet is wandering in the lake
District and he presents us a very huge landscape "over vales and
hills", but his thoughts are interrupted by a vision of "a crowd, a host
of golden daffodils"; analysing through the first lines, clouds are
metaphor of the poet’s feelings of isolation from the physical world,
that is to say, it is the comparison with a cloud that suggests his
immersion into the natural world, free to wonder with his mind.
Suddenly, this state of isolation is interrupted by the
appearance of these flowers that present human connotations, the words
"crowd" and "host" in apposition to the daffodils is a personification,
because they are nouns associated to human beings. I agree with the
general thought that the crowd of daffodils can represent the human
race, thus the poet is fascinated by them and he watches the flowers,
but he has no control over men.
(cf. <personal opinion>, <Only connect a
history and anthology of english literature with american &
commonwealth insights, p.D86-D87> and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud>)
In the second stanza, from line 7 to 9 we have a simile,
daffodils like stars, it is something endless, continuous, large and
this movement contrasts with the static movement of the waves in the
lake. There is another personification of daffodils in line 12 "Tossing
their heads in sprightly dance".
(cf. <personal opinion> and <Only connect a
history and anthology of english literature with american &
commonwealth insights>, p.D86-D87)
In the third stanza, it is described the effect that the
flowers have on the poet, in fact there are many words associated with
happiness as: "glee", "gay", "jocund company", happiness caused by this
experience, which everybody can have. In line 17 "I gazed—and gazed" is
an act in which the poetic transformation takes place spontaneously,
without full consciousness on the poet’s part of what he is doing and
"he little thought" what this show meant to him.
(cf. <Personal opinion> and <Only connect a
history and anthology of english literature with american &
commonwealth insights, p.D86-D87>)
However, in the final stanza " the inward eye" reminds
him what he has experienced and in the tranquility he can recollect
these thoughts in the solitude of his house, moreover he realizes what
this show meant and his heart is filled with pleasure. The poet is not
able at a first sight to interpret the act, it is only afterwards, that
thoughts are understood and described, nonetheless he can understand
this experience, thanks to "the inward eye", which represents feelings
of imagination, it is a metaphor, a special way to see things; the poet
is able to interpret the secret language of nature and technical poetry
made up of emotions.
(cf. <personal opinion> and <Only connect a
history and anthology of english literature with american &
commonwealth insights, p.D86-D87>)
The poet presents vocabulary associated to lonelyness:
lonely, solitude; opposition between nature and society, vocabulary
associated with light: sprightly, stars, golden, shine, twinkle, flash,
sparkling. Movement is linked to: wandered, floats, fluttering; moreover
we have images of earth: vales and hills; images of air: clouds, breeze;
images of water: lake, waves. There is a choice of tense in the poem in
the last stanza, the poet returns to the reality, the present records
the memories, it is a process of creative imagination, an outstanding
experience.
(cf. <personal opinion> and< Only connect a
history and anthology of english literature with american &
commonwealth insights, p.D86-D87>)
As far as I know Wordsworth was fired by the ideas of
the time, which brought a new stress on individual creativity and a
sense of freedom to innovate. This poem could be seen as what poetry was
and how it might be written, that is to say in solitude, with an "inward
eye", imagination, immersed in nature, recollecting all the thoughts and
impressions in solitude following the power of memory and imagination.
To the best of my knowledge, romantic poetry emphasizes the poet’s
feelings and that the writing act is immediate and spontaneous, arising
from impulse and free from rules, consequently loneliness and nature are
the best mood and place for the composition technique. Moreover during
the romantic period, natural scene was idealized as a site where the
individual could find freedom and happiness from the society, concept
expressed in the final stanza of "Daffodils".
(cf.<personalopinion>and
<http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c07c006a14217gA/wp-slim/display/16206600/16207595.wimpy>)
Finally, I can conclude quoting that
Wordsworth concentrates on nature in all its forms, without using simple
descriptions and concentrating on the ways in which he responds and
relates to the world; in his view, poetry is a means to look at the
relationship between nature and human life and to explore the belief
that nature can have an impact on our emotional and spiritual lives.
(cf.<http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c07c006a14217gA/wp-slim/display/16206600/16207595.wimpy>)
Bibliography:
- Wordsworth’s
I wandered lonely as a cloud
<http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww260.html>
Home:
www.bartleby.com
02/05/2007
- Wordsworth’s Daffodils under
Only connect a history and anthology of english literature with
american & commonwealth insights. Bologna, Marina Spiazzi e
Marina Tavella, Zanichelli 2000 24/11/2006
-
I wandered lonely as a cloud section
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud
...section>.
Home: www.wikipedia.org 25/11/2006
- Autobiographical work and Poems in Two Volumes section
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#
Autobiographical_work_and_Poems_in_Two_Volumes>
Home:
www.wikipedia.org
25/11/2006
- Summary section
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud>
Home:
www.wikipedia.org
26/11/2006
- Aula virtual section under
http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/romantic/ / by Dr. Vicente Fores
<http://aulavirtual.uv.es/dotlrn/classes/c006/14217/c07c006a14217gA/wp-slim/display/16206600/16207595.wimpy>
Home:
www.wwnorton.com
27/11/2006