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Daffodils
William Wordsworth

Background

The poem was written in 1804, inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which
Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils while travelling
in the Lake District of England. It was first published in 1807 in “Poems in Two Volumes”
and a revised version was published in 1815.

Summary

The poem ‘Daffodils’ or ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ is one of the loveliest and best-
known poems of William Wordsworth. The poem was written in the year 1802. It was first
published in “Poems in Two Volumes” in 1807. The very starting line of the poem “I
wandered lonely as a cloud” informs the poet’s profound sentiments of being left alone. It
was actually the death of his brother John that led him to “loneliness.” The poem was thus
not a result of imagination, but that of actual visualization.

The poet or the speaker in this poem, says that, once while “wandering like a cloud floating
above hills and valleys”, he came across a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing,
fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the shining waves of the
lake danced beside the flowers, yet the daffodils outdid the water with their beauty.

The poet says that the golden daffodils twinkled and stretched in a continuous line just
like the stars in the Milky Way galaxy for putting a greater implication in indicating that
the flowers are heavenly as the stars. He seems the endless view of the golden daffodils as
a never-ending line. The poet’s exaggeration of the number of flowers by saying “Ten
thousand saw I at a glance” indicates that he has never seen so many daffodils at once.
The poet could not help to be happy in such a joyful company of flowers.

He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring
him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive” the memory strikes “that inward
eye” that is “the bliss of solitude” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the
daffodils.”
Nature permeates the entire poem. Phrases like “a crowd, a host…. continuous as the
stars…they stretched in never-ending lines…ten thousand saw I at a glance” present deep
implications of nature’s extensiveness. Daffodils, an everyday found flower has been
portrayed in magical verses and blended with transcendental romanticism that leaves an
everlasting mark in the minds of the readers of this poem.

Glossary

*Wandered (line 1)– walk or move in a leisurely or aimless way.

⁎Floats (line 2)-moves easily or lightly.

⁎Vales (line 2)- valleys

*Crowd (line 3)- a large number of people in one place.

⁎Host (line 4) – a large number of daffodils.

*Beneath (line 5) – in, at or to a lower position than somebody/something; under.

⁎Fluttering (line 6)– the motion made by flapping up and down

* Margin (line 10) - the edge or border of something.

*Stretched (line 9)– endless

⁎Glance (line 11) – brief look

*Sprightly (line 12) – full of energy

*Sparkling (line 14) – shining with many small points of light

⁎Jocund (line 16) – cheerful , merry

*Gazed (line 17) – to look steadily for a long time

*Couch (line 19)– a long seat, often with a back and arms, for sitting or lying on

*Pensive (line 20) – deeply thoughtful

*Vacant (line 20) – not being used; empty

*Flash (line 21)– to produce or make something produce a sudden bright light for a short

time

*Inward (line 21)- towards the inside or centre

⁎Solitude (line 22)– the state of being alone

* Pleasure (line 23)- the feeling of being happy or satisfied

*Daffodils (line 24)- a tall yellow flower that grows in the spring

Structure & Form

The poem is composed of 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC.

Meter

The meter is iambic tetrameter, which just means that each line has four ("tetra") iambs.
An iamb is a short, unaccented syllable followed by a longer, accented syllable.

Poetic devices and figures of speech-

Imagery

The use of imagery makes the reader visualize the writer’s feelings and emotions.
Wordsworth has used images appealing to the sense of sight such as “lonely as a cloud”,
“a crowd”, “never-ending lines and “jocund company.” These descriptions help the reader
to imagine or feel the same joy felt by the speaker.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of a poem . For
example-

1.Beside the lake, beneath the trees/ Continuous as the stars that shine/Ten thousand saw
I at a glance/And dances with the daffodils.

2.The use of /w/ sound in, “What wealth the show to me had brought.”
Personification

Personification is to attribute human characteristics to lifeless objects. For example-

1. “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” -the Daffodils are addressed as humans that
can dance.

2. “In a jocund company.” -here he considers the daffodils as his cheerful friend

3. Fluttering and dancing in the breeze- human qualities given.

Simile

Simile- is a device that is used to compare one object to another using ‘as’ or ‘like’. For
example, in the poem-1) “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” Here, the poet compares his
loneliness with a single cloud.

2) “Continuous as the stars that shine.”

Here , Wordsworth compares the endless rows of daffodils with countless stars.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things
that aren't alike but do have something in common. Unlike a simile, where two things are
compared directly using like or as, a metaphor's comparison is more indirect, usually
made by stating something is something else.

For example- They flash upon that inward eye.

Personification

Personification is to attribute human characteristics to lifeless objects.

For example

1. “Tossing their heads and sprightly dance.” - the Daffodils are addressed as humans that
can dance.

2. “In a jocund company.” -Here he considers the daffodils as his cheerful friend.
Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement. In the two examples-

1. “When all at once I saw a crowd,”

2. “Ten thousand saw I at a glance,” - the poet has used ‘crowd’ and ‘ten thousand’ to
mean a lot of daffodils. But he must not have counted them there at a glance. This is an
obvious exaggeration.

Repetition

In the third stanza, the poet uses repetition for emphasizing a particular idea.

For example, poet repeats the word 'gazed' twice. The word 'dance' is repeated thrice in
the poem. The repetition of 'gazed' could show how much the speaker loved looking at
the daffodils. The repetition of 'dance' shows the happiness and liveliness of the flowers.

‘Yet knowing how way leads on to way’/ Somewhere ages and ages hence.

The word way and ages has been repeated for emphasis.

Themes of the poem

The concept of this poem is about the speaker’s joy for the beauty of daffodils and what
they mean to him and mankind’s relationship to the natural world. Throughout this
poem, the speaker is admiring the natural world and its beauty.

The themes of this poem are nature and humanity, memory and imagination. The
speaker is the symbol for humanity and the daffodils are the symbol of nature. In the
poem, humanity is a part of nature and humans having a strong bond with nature creates
real and not synthetic human happiness, for example, mobile devices. The speaker uses
beautiful natural imagery to encourage the reader to appreciate the beauty of nature and
what it has to offer.

The speaker appears to be lonely at the beginning of the poem but the presence and sight
of the daffodils become ingrained in the speaker’s vivid memories. The cloud is a
metaphor for the speaker and in using this metaphor it represents that humanity can be
one with nature. Without nature we all of humanity would be lonely, we would be like
the cloud this is why the poem has its name. The poem is trying to convince the reader of
the positive effects of having an active engagement with nature. In today’s age, this poem
is so important because we do not have an active engagement or appreciation for nature,
we destroy it and in doing so we are destroying our happiness and replacing it with
material possessions.

The form of poetry is lyrical and the rhyme scheme is ABABCC in each stanza throughout
the poem and it is spoken in the first person through the speaker recalling their memories
of nature.

The whole poem is a recital of the speaker’s memory and requires the reader to have an
imagination to truly visualise the speaker’s memory within their mind. If it weren’t for
the speaker’s imagination and ability to use poetic techniques to create a picture for others
to read, there would be no poem. The speaker looks back on an experience and uses his
imagination to turn it into something vivid and different.

The personification of the daffodils throughout the poem are used imaginatively, they are
said to be “dancing” but they are just being blown by the wind but the activity of dancing
seems to evoke a pleasant feeling, it is like the daffodils are alive, living and vivid in the
reader’s mind/imagination. The reader then starts to notice life in everything else and in
doing so this makes them feel more alive. The speaker’s inward eye is a symbol for or
metaphor for their imagination, which they bring up whenever they are in a “vacant or ..
pensive mood.” The reader is being taken on the journey of the speaker’s memory and
asked to use their imagination.

The speaker shows with his inward eye (imagination) positive effects can occur, he is no
longer in a vacant or pensive mood and encourages the reader to use their imagination.
By personifying the daffodils with human qualities sadly makes them more important to
humans, if we saw plants and animals that way we would not destroy them because in
doing so we would be destroying ourselves. Because the speaker has such a strong
imagination, they can extend their experience into our minds (the readers). Imagination
and nature are essential to human happiness and content. The daffodils in this poem are a
symbol of nature’s beauty and the rebirth of the land in springtime.

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