DAFFODILS
Introduction
The lyric poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud or Daffodils by
William Wordsworth is considered to be one of his best poems in modern times.
The poet narrates a small incident in which he got an opportunity to see a huge
number of daffodils in a valley.
The poem consists of four stanzas having six lines each. The
rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCC and the main theme is the beauty of nature.
Stanza 1
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.
In the first stanza, the poet says that he was wandering
lonely as a Cloud that floats on high o’er vales and Hills. The phrase refers
to him being roaming around without any purpose. He was all alone like a cloud
that floats high in the valley.
Usually, the clouds are not alone, but here the poet
probably refers to a fragment of the cloud that moves among the hills in the
valley. Unlike the clouds that are full of rain and thus move in purpose, this
fragment has no particular direction to move and just roams around above the
valley.
While roaming in the valley he suddenly sees a crowd, a
host, of golden daffodils. The words crowd and host mean a large number of
people. Hence the poet uses personification and attributes the human qualities
to daffodils.
The poet calls daffodils golden rather than yellow in order
to express their majesty and beauty. According to the poet, he sees a large
number of daffodils beside the lake, beneath the trees i.e. along with the
shores of the lake and below the trees because they are small.
The daffodils seem to be fluttering and dancing in the
breeze. Again the poet personifies the daffodils by showing them as flapping
(wings of birds or in imaginations that of angels) and dancing (like humans) in
the moving breeze.
In a way, the poet imagines as if the daffodils possess the
qualities of both thus of the world and the meta world. Hence this is the
example of juxtaposition in I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud.
Stanza 2
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 second stanza begins with the comparison between
daffodils along the lake and stars in the Milkyway. The poet says that the
daffodils stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay. The bay
here refers to the lake.
According to the poet, the daffodils which covered the shore
of the lake seemed to be unending like the stars in the sky and like them (the
stars of Milkyway), they were too twinkling.
The phrase Ten thousand saw I at a glance is a hyperbole
that means the poet saw a large number of daffodils which he could not count.
The daffodils were Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The word head here
refers to the top flower part of the plant.
Sprightly dance means lively and jubilant dance. The
daffodils were thus moving their heads (flowers) in a rhythm which looked quite
amazing and seemed to the poet as they were dancing.
Stanza 3
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, the poet brings in the waves waving in
the lake. The poet says that the waves beside them danced; but they out-did the
sparkling waves in glee.
The line
means that there were waves too which seemed to be dancing in the lake, but the
joyful dance of the daffodils was far better than theirs. And for a poet like
Wordsworth himself, their joyful company was the ultimate source of pleasure
and ecstasy.
These lines somehow reflect the ideals of the Romantic Age
and its theme return to nature. The ultimate source of joy for the Romantics
was nature and its appreciation.
Hence in the poem, the poet concludes that seeing the
daffodils dancing along the lake is the dream of every poet including him and
being there is like dream coming true.
And thus the poet gazed—and gazed i.e. kept looking on the
daffodils and their dance. However, he could not fully appreciate the scenery
before him. Wealth here means ‘happiness‘.
For the Romantics, nature and its beauty was the ultimate
wealth and because it was in abundance, he could take away just a little bit of
it though he kept watching them.
Stanza 4
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 fourth and final stanza, the poet says that while
sitting on his couch (a kind of bench) and in vacant (when he is idle) or in
pensive mood (when he is sorrowful), the memories of those daffodils flash upon
his inward eye i.e. his spiritual or the Romantic vision.
Their memory then becomes the source of joy in his solitude.
His heart is then filled with pleasure and dances with the daffodils. Thus the
memory of the daffodils becomes his companion in his solitude and taking away
all his sorrows and boredom make his spirit dance with them.
Poetic Devices
- Simile
- lonely
as a cloud
- as
the stars that shine
- Hyperbole
What does Hyperbole Mean in English? Hyperbole is a figure of speech in
which the speaker exaggerates or magnifies something to make it sound
more...
- Ten
thousand saw I at a glance
- stretched
in never-ending line
- Personification
- a
crowd, a host, of golden daffodils
- dancing
in the breeze.
- Tossing
their heads in sprightly dance
- waves
beside them danced
- inward
eye
“I wandered lonely as a Cloud”
About the poet William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a romantic poet. He wrote poetry with full of imagery, usually based around the natural world. His poetry is mostly subjective like other romantic poets. He lived during the era of French Revolution which he supported at start but became against later on. Some scholars advocate that relationship of Wordsworth with his sister, Dorothy that was far from plutonic love. But, Wordsworth did marry and lived with both his sister and wife. Samuel Coleridge, a best friend of Wordsworth, was a great poet of the romantic era. He was contemporary poet who accelerated his romantic vision. Both were true lovers of nature and they were active members of Romanticism Movement.
Introduction to the poem Daffodils
The lyric poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” also known as ‘Daffodils’ was written by William Wordsworth. It is one of his best lyric poems in modern times. In the poem Daffodils, William Wordsworth reports a scene which he got an opportunity to have a look at valley that was full of huge number of daffodils. This lyric poem consists of four stanzas; each stanza consists of six lines. Each line of the poem is metered in an iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme “ABABCC” is followed in the poem. As he loved nature so the main theme of the poem is also the beauty of nature. The use of figurative language made it much appealing to the readers. The poem is subjective because it expresses the feelings of the poet himself; one of the key characteristics of Romanticism.
Summary of the Poem Daffodils
Stanza 1
The poet narrates an incident that occurs when he was wandering aimlessly like a cloud over the hills and valleys of the mountainous Lake District in England. During wandering, he catch a sight of huge numbers of daffodils that make him surprised. He was a lover of nature and such scene was fascinating for him. He uses beautiful imagery to describe the scene. He uses word crowd for huge number of daffodils and he himself calls a host. He personifies flowers and makes them able to dance like human and uses word flutter as butterflies do. Actually that day, there was wind blowing that was moving them as they were dancing and fluttering. He describes a landscape view in a beautiful way that portraits valleys, lakes, tress, flowers and clouds.
Stanza 2
Second stanza opens with a simile. He compares flowers with stars and crowd of flowers like a galaxy of stars. He says that flowers are looking like stars shining in the Milky Way. He compares fluttering of flowers as a twinkling of stars. Poet uses word “never-ending line” means the flowers were visible as far as the poet’s eyes could see alongside the shore-line of the bay. Using hyperbolic language, he tells us the quantity of flowers as they were ten thousand in one sight. That shows that the he has never seen so many flowers at once. At the end of second stanza, he again uses word dance to personify flowers.
Stanza 3
The flowers in the bay were dancing and looking gleeful at the atmosphere. Being a lover of nature, poet says that a poet like Wordsworth cannot help being happy with such cheerful companion like the daffodils, so he was gazing continuously at the daffodils and enjoying their beauty. He used word ‘gazed’ twice that indicates how flowers moved or charmed him. So poet gazed at flowers for a long time, forgetting his surroundings. At present, poet did not think much about the ‘wealth’ that the daffodils had brought to him but he realized it later. This ‘wealth’ is the happiness he got from the scene of daffodils and the pleasant memory that he enjoyed for a long time since the day.
Stanza 4
He starts fourth stanza with word ‘For’, to continue his logic for saying that the daffodils had brought him ‘wealth’. He explains that why the scene of the daffodils became so significant for his life. Whenever, he goes to his bed in a free time or he is in thoughtful mood, the flowers blaze upon his inner-eye and took him to imagination. The flowers became an interminable memory for Wordsworth. The poet calls it ‘a bliss of solitude’, a blessing of staying lonely. Whenever, he sees daffodils in his imagination, his heart fills with happiness and dancing daffodils makes his mind dancing in same way. This indicates the intense feelings of a romantic poet. He has been able to portray the scenery and express his mind so brightly in vivid language and simple form that appeals the readers.
Critical appreciation of the poem
This poem is a depiction of beautiful nature. Daffodils is one of the most famous poems of Romantic Movement written by William Wordsworth. Being a lover of nature, Poet reveals feelings of a scene of huge number of daffodils by a lake that made him surprised. The imagery in simple wording and couple of similes made it one of the best poems of romantic era. His way of personifying flowers is most attractive way of writing poetry. The plot of the poem is very simple and unified to a single theme. The memory of this beautiful scene comforts him whenever he is lonely. The age in which he lived was the period of French Revolution. At start, he was in support of it but later on he became against it and became depressed by it. So he tries his best to keep himself happy. So in this context, poet says that the memories of beautiful flowers keep his mood fresh when he is lonely. This indicates the intense feelings of a romantic poet. The hyperbolic language made it more attractive when poet says:
“Ten Thousand I saw at a Glance”
The word ten thousand is used in hyperbolic sense. The word he used for himself “cloud” is also much appealing to the readers. The word flutter, tossing, and dancing are also examples of beautiful personification. So the entire poem is beautiful depiction of nature with full of figurative language.
Theme of the poem Daffodils
The poem Daffodils is the depiction of natural beauty. As William Wordsworth was a poet of romantic era; he depicts beauty of nature in his poem using beautiful imagery and language full of figurative tools. He personifies beauty and use couple of similes to make the wording appealing. He, with his contemporary, Samuel Tailor Coleridge, started Romantic Movement and this poem is the true example of his romantic love towards nature.
Figurative language used in poem Daffodils
The poem Daffodils is full of figurative language. The poem opens with a simile by a metaphorical comparison of poet to a cloud. He personifies flowers by using words dancing, fluttering, and tossing. He used hyperbolic language by saying ten thousand flowers. In the whole poem he describes flowers like living beings that dance and toss their head. He calls these flowers fluttering as the butterflies do.
The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Introduction .. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is one of the most read English poets. His poetic genius unfolded quite early in his life. Along with S. T. Coleridge he started the Romantic Age in English Literature with the publication of Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth was a lover of Nature. He loved walking alone for enjoying the landscape around him. No doubt, such long lonely walks rejuvenated his mind, but at times, he used to feel sad and depressed. He had a troubled marital relationship with Annette Valon, the French woman, who bore him a daughter. Political upheaval in France, and the growing animosity between Britain and France forced him to leave Annette and the daughter behind. He remained separated from them for years. This rupture of relationship forced by extraneous circumstances scarred his mind. At times, he used to feel terribly despondent and rejected. Nature provided him with the necessary succor in such times of mental distress.
This short poem The Daffodils shows how profoundly Wordsworth leaned on Nature for his emotional support. For him, the image of the Daffodils remained a wholesome mood elevator, and a perennial source of pleasure.
The poem…
William Wordsworth was an avid observer of Nature. In this poem, he describes the impression a cluster of daffodil flowers created in his mind when he saw them while taking a stroll beside a lake hemmed by some trees.
Stanza 1 ..
The beauty of the daffodils lifted his mind and his spirit. His imagination and his poetic instincts came to the fore. He could see himself as a cloud floating past the golden-coloured daffodils on the ground where some trees stood beside a lake. The flowers were swaying in the breeze. This gentle movement enhanced their attraction.
Stanza 2..
The daffodils were numerous in number. They seemed to stretch in an endless line. The poet felt as if they were like the twinkling stars in the Milky Way. Clearly, the poet has been profoundly enchanted by the daffodils’ beauty, accentuated by their alternating swaying movements. The flowers, appearing full of life and beauty, have un-fettered the poetic imagination of Wordsworth.
Stanza 3 ..
Pushed by the breeze, the waves in the lake swayed too. To the poet’s eyes, the swaying daffodils looked more bewitching than the dancing waves of the lake. The poet feasted his eyes in the beauty of the daffodils. He found it hard to look elsewhere, so riveting was the beauty of the swaying daffodils. In his mind, the sight of the daffodils remained stamped forever. The flowers were possibly one of Nature’s most beautiful offerings, he thought.
Stanza 4 ..
The joyous encounter with the swaying daffodils remained stored in his subconscious mind. When loneliness made him dispirited and pensive, he would remember the beautiful sight of the swaying cluster of daffodils he had seen in the past, and the sadness would vanish instantly. Such was the lifting power of the memory of the daffodils. For the rest of his life, the daffodils remained in his mind as a balm that could dispel sadness, and bring happiness. The scene, thus, became a priceless treasure which acted as n inexhaustible source of happiness.
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