Unit 12: TALKING ABOUT PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

• The poet was wandering lonely over the valleys and the hills when suddenly he came across a lot of daffodil flowers beside a lake.
• The poet was overjoyed at the lovely sight of the flowers which seemed to be “tossing their heads” and “dancing” in the mild breeze. Charmed the daffodils, he gazed at them for long.
• Later in his life, when in a vacant or pensive mood, the poet felt pleasure with the memory of those flowers flashing upon his “inward eye”.

SUMMARY:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is one of the most popular poems of Wordsworth. The poem was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802 in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a "long belt" of daffodils while wandering in the forest. In this poem, there are four stanzas with six lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCC and the main theme is the beauty of nature.

The speaker was wandering alone like a floating cloud over valleys and hills. Suddenly, he saw a crowd of golden daffodils beside the lake, beneath the trees. They were uttering and dancing in the breeze. Those daffodils were like stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way. They were stretched endlessly along the shore. The speaker saw ten thousand daffodils tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them were also dancing but they were not as beautiful as daffodils. There he could not do anything but be happy in such a joyful company of owners. He gazed and gazed but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he lies on his couch in a vacant or pensive mood, the memory ashes upon that inward eye; that is the bliss of solitude (being alone). Then his heart is filled with pleasure and dances with the daffodils.

Read the poem, and match the following words with their meanings.

Words	Meanings
Vacant Sprightly Couch Gaze Sparkling Bay Stretched  Gay	vii. vi. v. iv. viii. iii. ii. i.	Empty Lively; full of life and energy Sofa; a long comfortable seat To look steadily Shining and flashing with light A broad inlet of the sea where the land curves inwards Extended Cheerful

2. Reading comprehension 

1. Read the poem again, and answer these questions. 
1. Who is compared with a cloud?
   The poet/the speaker in the poem is compared with the cloud.
2. Where did the person in the poem see the daffodils?
   The person in the poem saw the daffodils beside the lake and beneath the trees.
3. What word does the poet use to compare the daffodils with?
   The poet uses the word 'star' to compare with the daffodils.
4. The speaker dances with the daffodils. Why?
   The speaker dances with the daffodils because he got much pleasure even in the solitude of seeing the daffodils and his heart gets filled with pleasure.
5. What is the theme of the poem?
   The theme of the poem is that even when you are by yourself and lonely and missing your friends, you can use your imagination to find new friends in the world around you.
6. Is the ‘loneliness’ of the first stanza similar to the ‘solitude’ of the last stanza?
   No, the loneliness of the first stanza is different from the solitude of the last stanza. 
2. Vocabulary in Use <p.138>
1. Find the word/s from the text above that give similar meaning to the following. 
1. with the capacity to develop or happen in the future = potential
2. the conditions relating to public health, especially the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal = sanitation
3. continue after interruption = resume
4. the condition in which there is difficulty in emptying the bowels = constipation
5. make (something) impure by exposure or addition of a poisonous or polluting substance = contaminated
6. the identification of the nature of an illness or other problem by examination of the symptoms = diagnosis
7. able to be prevented or avoided = preventive

GRAMMAR

3. Follow-up Activity

Rewrite the following passage choosing the correct forms of verbs. 

When man first made music, he probably started (starts/started) by beating sticks together or by hitting a hollow log with a stick. This, of course, is (is/are) just rhythm, without melody. Rhythm, one of the ingredients that go (go/goes) together to make up music, is the oldest. 

What exactly is (is/are) rhythm? In music, the word rhythm means the steady beat of time. It refers to time patterns that repeat over and over again. Some people have (has/have) the idea that only fast music has rhythm. This is not so. Rhythm is found in all music, whether it is slow or fast When we hear (hear/hears) slow music, we listen to a slow steady ow of music in time. When we hear quick lively music, we also hear the rhythm, but at a much faster tempo, or speed. 

When dad drives (drive/drives) the car he watches the speedometer to know how fast he’s going. Also, signs are (is/are) found along the way to tell him the speed limit. In music, the conductor tells (tell/tells) us how fast to go. We also have (has/have) a music speedometer, called a metronome, to help out. In addition, we nd signs to tell us how fast to go. Both conductors and musicians are (is/ are) used to these signs which they call tempo signs. They are usually written in Italian ... 

Extensive Reading:

The poet was travelling aimlessly just like a cloud over the hills and valleys of the mountainous Lake District in England. At that time, suddenly he came across a large number of golden daffodils beside the lake and under the trees. The flowers were fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

The poet directly compares himself to a cloud, as he was wandering without aim, just like the clouds. This is an example of a Simile (a Simile is a figure of speech where two things are compared using ‘as’ or ‘like’). He also uses the expressions like ‘crowd’ and ‘host’ to mean that he saw a large area covered with a whole lot of daffodils. In the last line, the poet personifies the flowers by saying that they were fluttering (like birds or butterflies) and dancing (like human beings). There is also an indication that it was a breezy day. So we get an overall idea of the landscape which includes the valleys and hills, the lake, the trees, the flowers beneath them and the breezy atmosphere.

In the second stanza, the flowers are compared to the stars. They stretched in a continuous line just like the stars in a galaxy like the Milky Way. Moreover, the daffodils were shining and twinkling like stars. This comparison with the stars may have a greater implication in indicating that the flowers are heavenly as the stars.

The flowers were visible as far as the poet could see along the shoreline of a bay. That is why he uses the phrase “never-ending line”. Here ‘continuous’ and ‘never-ending’ may also suggest that the flowers left an everlasting impact on him. Wordsworth exaggerates the number of flowers by saying “Ten thousand saw I at a glance”. That indicates that the poet has never seen so many daffodils at once. So he is just overjoyed. This type of exaggeration is called hyperbole (exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally). 

The poet also says that the daffodils were tossing their heads as if they were dancing in happiness. Actually, the poet was amazed at the beauty of the flowers. So, he found everything around him joyful. All these references of dancing and tossing heads are parts of his personification of the flowers.

In the third stanza, the poet states that the waves in the bay were dancing and looking gleeful at the atmosphere. But the flowers outshone the lively waves in their happiness. Having such cheerful companions like the daffodils, a poet like Wordsworth cannot help being happy. So he was gazing constantly at the flowers and enjoying their beauty. The word ‘gazed’ is used twice to indicate how moved or charmed the poet was. So he gazed at them for a long time, forgetting his surroundings. At that time, he did not think much about the ‘wealth’ that the flowers had brought to him. The poet realized that later, maybe, after a few days. This ‘wealth’ is the happiness and the pleasant memory that he enjoyed for a long time since the day.

Stanza four starts with ‘For’. The poet continues his reasoning by saying that the flowers had brought him ‘wealth’. He clarifies why the sight of the flowers was so important in his life. Whenever he lies on his bed in a vacant or thoughtful mood, the daffodils flash upon his inner eye, i.e., his imagination. The daffodils have become an everlasting memory for the poet, whenever he is lonely. So, he calls it ‘a bliss of solitude’, a blessing of staying alone. And whenever he sees the flowers in his imagination, his heart fills with pleasure and his mind dances with the dancing daffodils.

This shows the poet’s intense feelings. The poet has been able to depict the landscape and express his mind so vividly in so simple language and form, that really draws one’s attention. And that is why this poem has been one of the most read and mentioned subjective poems in the history of English literature.