Marwan Muhammad Farag

Basic English Dep

3rd Year
Poetry assignment
For Dr. Ali Ghandour
 ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ Analysis

‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ is one of the best-loved poems of the

fountainhead of romanticism William Wordsworth. This poem features how the
spontaneous emotions of the poet’s heart sparked by the energetic dance of
daffodils help him pen down this sweet little piece. On 15 April 1802, Wordsworth
and his sister Dorothy came across a host of daffodils around Glencoyne Bay in
the Lake District. This event was the inspiration behind the composition of
Wordsworth’s lyric poem.
‘Daffodils’ or ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ has been dissected methodically for
illustrating the poet’s mood, the surrounding location, the allegorical meanings,
and the beauty of nature in full motion. The poet’s love and proximity with nature
have inspired and moved generations after generations of poetry lovers and
young minds.

Summary
‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‘ by William Wordsworth describes how a host of
golden daffodils dancing in the breeze of the Lake District mesmerized his heart.

The speaker, likely William Wordsworth himself, is wandering down the hills and
valley when he stumbled upon a beautiful field of daffodils. The speaker is
transfixed by the daffodils seemingly waving, fluttering, and dancing along the
waterside. Albeit, the lake’s waves moved as fervently, but the beauty of daffodils
outdid with flying colors. The poet feels immensely gleeful and chirpy at this
mesmerizing natural sight. Amongst the company of flowers, he remains
transfixed at those daffodils wavering with full vigor. Oblivious to the poet is the
fact that this wondrous scenery of daffodils brings the poet immense blithe and
joy when he’s in a tense mood or perplexed for that matter. His heart breaths a
new life and gives him exponential happiness at sight worth a thousand words.
Structure and Form
The poem is composed of four stanzas of six lines each. It is an adherent to the
quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme, A-B-A-B-C-C. Every line conforms to iambic
tetrameter. The poem ‘Daffodils’ works within the a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme as it
uses consistent rhyming to invoke nature at each stanza’s end. Moreover, it helps
in creating imagery skillfully as the poet originally intended. The poem flows akin
to a planned song in a rhythmic structure. Consonance and alliteration are used to
create rhymes.
This poem is written from the first-person point of view. Therefore it is an ideal
example of a lyric poem. The poetic persona is none other than Wordsworth
himself. This piece contains a regular meter. There are eight syllables per line, and
the stress falls on the second syllable of each foot. There are four iambs in each
line. Thus the poem is in iambic tetrameter

Figurative Language and Poetic Devices

Wordsworth makes use of several literary devices in ‘I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud.’ These include but are not limited to similes, hyperboles, personification,
and allusion. Similes are also used since the poet alludes to an aimless cloud as he
takes a casual stroll. Moreover, daffodils are compared to star clusters in Milky
Way to explicate the magnitude of daffodils fluttering freely beside the lake. At
times, hyperbole is used to explicate the immensity of the situation. The allusion
of daffodils to stars spread across the Milky Way is one such instance.
Furthermore, the daffodils are even made anthropomorphous to create a human
portrayal of Mother Nature in this instance.

Moreover, the poet has also used reverse personifications, equating humans to
clouds and daffodils to humans with constant movement. Using this clever tactic,
the poet brings people closer to nature, becoming a hallmark of William
Wordsworth’s most basic yet effective methods for relating readers with nature,
appreciating its pristine glory. Daffodils celebrate the beauty of nature and its
purity, along with the bliss of solitude. He deems his solitude as an asset and
inspires him to live a meaningful life.
Wordsworth makes use of imagery figuratively to display his feelings and
emotions after encountering the daffodils. Firstly, the image of the cloud
describes the poet’s mental state, and the images that appear after that vividly
portray the flowers. These images, in most cases, are visual, and some have
auditory effects (For example, “Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”) associated
with them.

Detailed 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.

In the first stanza of ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ Wordsworth explains his one-
day occasional aimless wandering. The term “wandered” means walking free of
their own accord. The poet is referring to himself as the “cloud” in a metaphorical
sense of the word. Although the clouds mostly travel in groups, this cloud prefers
singular hovering. However, he clearly mentions his passing through valleys and
hills on a routine walk, simplifying the narrative.

The poet comes across a bunch of daffodils fluttering in the air. He’s
dumbfounded by the beauty of those “golden daffodils.” Although yellow would
be more suitable for daffodils, the poet intends to signify its beauty by using
golden color. The daffodils are termed as “host” or crowd since they are together
in a collective bunch. They are a source of immense beauty for the poet hailing
from the Romantic Era.

Those daffodils are firmly perched beside a lake, beneath some trees. It’s a windy
day overall, and the flowers dance and flutter as the wind blows. Let’s take a step
back for a brief moment to locate the premises of the poet’s inspiration. The poet
resided in the famous Lake District, a region rich in scenic locations entailing hills,
valleys, and lakes. As a result, the location is realistic in its entirety. Wordsworth
refers to daffodils dancing, a trait relatable to humans.

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 above allegory is a clear and direct referral to our native galaxy Milky Way.
The space continuum holds great mystery for our Romantic Era poet as he
envisions the daffodils to be in a constant state of wonder, as are the stars
beyond the reach of humans.

The poet makes an allusion to the Milky Way, our galaxy filled with its own
planetary solar systems stretched beyond infinity. The lake supposedly has a large
area since the daffodils are dispersed along the shoreline. Along the Milky Way’s
premises lie countless stars, which the poet alludes to daffodils fluttering beside
the lake.
By “ten thousand,” he meant a collection of daffodils were fluttering in the air,
spellbinding the poet at the beauty of the scene. It’s just a wild estimation at best
as he supposes ten thousand daffodils at a glance. The term “sprightly” comes
from sprite, which is primarily dandy little spirits people deemed existed in such
times. They are akin to fairies.

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 speaker liked the “sprightly dance” of the daffodils so much that he, in the
third stanza, says that the sparkling waves of a lake beside cannot match their
beauty. The waves are sparkling due to the sunlight. This image is contrasted with
the dance of daffodils. Besides, the speaker imagines the tossing of their heads to
a wave. So, the contrast presents the resemblance of the lake’s water to the
daffodils.

Witnessing the scene, the romantic poet became so gay that he was not able to
move from the location. The flowers were a “jocund company” to him that he
could not find in humans. “Jocund” means cheerful and light-hearted. Their silent
presence told more than the words of humans could convey to him. They had a
purity that made the poet spellbound.
The repetition of the word “gazed” in the next line points at the poet’s state of
mind at that moment. His eyes were transfixed at the golden beauty of the
daffodils. That’s why he kept on gazing until he could drink their serenity to the
lees. The second half of the line quickly catches readers’ attention. Wordsworth is
now asking them what wealth the flowers had brought him on that day. Thus, he
quickly comes into reality from his imagination to inform readers about his
viewpoint.

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 last stanza describes the inspiration behind writing ‘I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud.’ According to Wordsworth, whenever he lies on his couch in a vacant or
thoughtful mood, the image flashes in his mind’s eyes. It is a simultaneous
process, not a forced one. Blissful memories are so gripping that they stick with a
person throughout their life. So, whenever the poet’s mind becomes empty of
thoughts, the image supplies him the source of energy to re-think. Not only that,
when he feels down, the scene acts similarly.
The “inward eye” is a reference to the mind’s eyes. When one shuts his physical
eyes, it unleashes those eyes. Wordsworth compares the daffodils to the “bliss”
of his solitary moments. He provides the reason why he says so. According to him,
the memory associated with the daffodils fills his heart with pleasure, making his
heart leap up once again like a child. In this way, the poet highlights the role of
nature, especially daffodils, in his life.
Themes
Throughout ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ Wordsworth engages with themes of
nature, memory, and spirituality. These three are tied together as the speaker,
Wordsworth himself, moves through a beautiful landscape. He takes pleasure in
the sight of the daffodils and revives his spirit in nature. At the same time,
Wordsworth explores the theme of memory, as he does in other works such as
‘Tintern Abbey.’ The flowers are there to comfort him in real-time and as a
memory from the past.

Symbolism
The poem begins with a symbolic reference to the cloud. It is wandering and
lonely. The poetic persona is the embodiment of such a cloud. Hence, it
symbolizes being lonely and thoughtless. This state is achieved when one is free
from mundane thoughts. The most important symbol of this piece is the daffodils.
The narcissistic description of the flower seems to be alluding to the Greek myth.
Apart from that, the daffodil acts as a symbol of rejuvenation and pure joy.
Wordsworth becomes the means through which the flowers express their
vibrance. In his pensive mood, they become a means for the poet’s self-reflection.

Tone and Mood

The tone of this poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, is emotive, hyperbolic,
expressive, and thoughtful. In the first stanza, the speaker’s tone helps readers
understand how he felt after seeing the daffodils on a specific event. As the poem
progresses, Wordsworth intensifies it. Thus it appears hyperbolic. In the last
stanza, he chooses a thoughtful tone for describing the impact of the scene on his
mind. The tone also follows the mood of the poem. Throughout the text, the poet
maintains a calm and joyous mood. It is like the breeze that made the daffodils
dance on that day. While going through the poem, readers can feel this relaxing
mood.