5
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth, born in Cumbria, England, began writing poetry in grammar school. Before graduating from college, he went on a walking tour of Europe, which deepened his love for nature and his sympathy for the common man, both major themes in his poetry. Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic on the “growth of a poet’s mind.”
Poet bio/poem
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.
Stanza 1
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.
Stanza 2
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:
Stanza 3
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.
Stanza 4
symbolism
Symbolism
The Cloud. Though the image of the cloud appears only in the first line of the poem, Wordsworth effectively uses it as a symbol of solitude and isolation. He does so by associating the cloud as an object with loneliness in saying “I wandered lonely as a cloud”
Imagery
imagery
Imagery in this are:“A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
Pictures
figurative language
- I wandered as lonely as a cloud
simile
- When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils
personification/ metaphor
- They stretched in a never ending line
hyperbole
- Ten thousand I saw at a glance
hyperbole
- The waves beside them danced
personification
theme & tone
The major theme of this poem is nature and human involvement in natural beauty.
The tone of this poem is joyful and thoughtful
Theme/tone
Fun facts
- William Wordsworth was born in Cumbria, England in 1870.
- He was very close to his siblings and parents.
- Wordsworth was sent to boarding school and he later attended college.
- In 1802, he married his childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson.
- Wordsworth became friends with Samuel Coleridge, another English poet.
Fun facts
Pictures
QUOTES
- "What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out."
- "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
- "Faith is a passionate intuition."
- Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least.