Daffodils
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. 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 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: 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.
Symbolism, Imagery & wordplay: 1-The Daffodils {dance , dance revolution}
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. Some variation of the word "dance" occurs in each of the four stanzas. Also, the speaker is taken aback by how many daffodils there are. We often think of daffodils as a flower that people plant in their gardens in the springtime, so it would be surprising to come upon thousands of them by an isolated lake.
Lines 3-4: The daffodils are personified as a crowd of people. This personification will continue throughout the poem. Lines 6: Daffodils cannot actually "dance," so Wordsworth is ascribing to them an action that is associated with people. Line 9: The speaker says that the line of daffodils is "never-ending," but we know this cant be strictly true: all good things come to an end. This is an example of hyperbole, or exaggeration. Line 12: The personification of the daffodils becomes more specific. The "heads" of the daffodils are the part of the flower with the petals. It is larger and heavier than the stem, and so it bobs in a breeze. (When you think about it, its kind of amazing how flowers support themselves at all.) Lines 13-14: The waves also get in on some of the dancing (and personification) action, but the daffodils are not to be out-done they are happier than the waves. Lines 21-24: Wordsworth imagines the daffodils in his spiritual vision, for which he uses the metaphor of an "inward eye." His heart dances like a person, too
2-Clouds, Sky & Heavens
"I wandered lonely as a Cloud" has the remote, otherworldly atmosphere that is suggested by the title. The speaker feels like a cloud, distant and separated from the world below. But this distance becomes a good thing when he comes upon the daffodils, which are like little stars. Its as if the problem at the beginning is that he hasnt ascended high enough. Lines 1-2: The beginning of the poem makes a simile between the speakers wandering and the "lonely" distant movements of a single cloud. Clouds cant be lonely, so we have another example of personification Lines 7-8: The second stanza begins with a simile comparing the shape and number of the daffodils to the band of stars that we call the Milky Way galaxy.
3-Angels & Spirits
You have to read into the poem a bit, but we think that Wordsworth is definitely trying to associate the flowers with angelic or heavenly beings. Maybe he was thinking of Dantes Paradise from The Divine Comedy, in which all the angels and blessed souls of heaven form a big flower. However, Wordsworth is a more naturalistic (i.e., strictly realistic) poet than Dante, and so the imagery of angels is extremely subtle. Line 4: You may have heard the phrase, "heavenly host" in reference to angels or spirits. We think Wordsworth adds the word "host" in order to suggest this connection. Also, the color of the flowers is golden like a halo. Line 10: Stars are associated with angels, too, so the simile comparing the flowers to "twinkling" stars reinforces the connection Line 12: The word "sprightly" is derived from the word "sprite," meaning a local spirit, almost like a fairy.
*Speaker
The speaker is a lonely poet who has learned how to keep himself company by viewing nature as "peopled" by things. The first two lines make him sound almost like the clich of a Romantic poet: his sensitive and intelligent nature puts him so far above everyone and everything else that he cant help but feel a noble loneliness. He lives in a rural area and likes to take long walks by himself, which isnt exactly the best cure for loneliness. Fortunately, the speaker doesnt stay in this funk for long. He has a vibrant imagination, and can create the effect of having people around him without actually having people around him. We know that the speaker is a poet because he tells us so in line 15. He speaks in the third person, but we know hes talking about himself. Also, we have the sense that this poet takes nature to be almost a religion, and he brings intense focus and attention with his "gaze" on nature. He also has an "inward," spiritual eye that seems more powerful (or at least equally powerful) than his regular vision.
*Setting
The poem begins with a single, solitary cloud floating slowly over the English countryside. You dont often see one cloud off by itself, but that seems to be the case here. The cloud is like a lost child wandering in through a shopping mall: "Would the mother of the lonely cloud please come claim her child!" The cloud floats over a part of the countryside with hills and valleys, so this is not flat farmland. If we were going to bring in Wordsworths biography into the mix, wed say that this is the famous Lake District where the poet lived much of his life. But were not going to do that, so well just call it some kind of region (a district, perhaps?) with lakes. You should feel free to come up with your own setting for the poem. Where do you picture the speaker catching this vision of never-ending daffodils? The main body of the poem is dedicated to the image of the daffodils. They are stretched in a line around the bay of a lake, bordered by the water on one side and trees on the other. The day is windy enough to create waves on the lake, and to make the flowers bob up and down in concert. At the end of the poem, the setting shifts indoors, to the speakers couch, where he sits bored and staring off into space. Were made to understand that this happens quite frequently. Then we go inside the speakers head and see the same image of the dancing daffodils in his spiritual vision, followed the image of his dancing heart.
*Whats up with the Title?
When you read the title as "I wandered lonely as a Cloud," you might have done a double take. Thats because many people know the poem as "Daffodils," or "The Daffodils." The original title merely follows a standard informal practice of using the first line of a poem as its title. But this title is misleading, because you think youre going to read a poem about loneliness, but then you get a poem about sublime happiness. Still, thats what Wordsworth wanted, so you have to trust the man. Some editors apparently thought the poems title should more accurately convey what the poem is about, which is why it is sometimes referred to as "The Daffodils." The poem is included in many anthologies, including Francis Palgraves 1875 collection The Golden Treasury under the title of "The Daffodils."
