I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - William Wordsworth

 

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

• William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales (valleys) 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 (lively/energetically) dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee (delight/pleasure):

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund (cheerful/happy) 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 (thoughtful/reflective) mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude (loneliness/isolation);

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth was one of the founders of English Romanticism and one its most central figures and important intellects. Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic poem chronicling the “growth of a poet’s mind.”

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is one of the most famous and best-loved poems written in the English language. It was composed around 1804, though he subsequently revised it—the final and most familiar version of the poem was published in 1815. It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 that included himself, his younger sister Dorothy and a "long belt" of daffodils.

The poem is based on one of Wordsworth's own walks in the countryside of England's Lake District. During this walk, he and his sister encountered a long strip of daffodils. In the poem, these daffodils have a long-lasting effect on the speaker, firstly in the immediate impression they make and secondly in the way that the image of them comes back to the speaker's mind later on. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a typical (ultimate) Romantic poem, bringing together key ideas about imagination, humanity and the natural world.

Summary

The speaker walks alone, similar to a solitary (loneliness) cloud in the sky floating over hills and valleys. 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 on purpose, this fragment has no particular direction to move and just roams around above the valley. Suddenly, the speaker sees a long and bustling (crowded) row of daffodils. They are near the lake and the trees and flutter (dance) and shift as they are blown by the breeze.

Comparing the daffodils to stars in the sky, the speaker notes how the flowers seem to go on without ending, alongside a bay. The speaker guesses there are ten thousand or so daffodils, all of their heads moving as if they were dancing. 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.

Near the daffodils, the waves are shining on the bay. But the daffodils seem more joyful to the speaker than the waves. A poet couldn't help being cheerful, says the speaker, in the cheerful company of the daffodils. The speaker stares at the daffodils lingeringly (lazily), without yet realizing the full extent of the positive effects of encountering them.

After the experience with the daffodils, the speaker often lies on the couch (sofa), either absent-minded or thoughtful. It is then that the daffodils come back to the speaker's imaginative memory—access to which is a gift of solitude—and fills the speaker with joy as his mind dances with the daffodils.

Works Cited

Wordsworth, William. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud. Accessed 13 August 2023.

Wordsworth, William. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Poem Summary and Analysis.” LitCharts, https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-wordsworth/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud. Accessed 13 August 2023.