I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, pioneer of Romantic poetry and high priest of nature, have underscored the process of composition of verses. As per the poet, poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Being the advocate of Romanticism, this short piece of poetic verses cater to the significant features of Romantic poetry: Emphasis on feelings, imagination , colloquial language and reverence to nature are existent in the poem.
TEXT
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.
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 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:
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
Daffodils enthralls the poet as he viewed the ‘crowd’ from a vantage and they arouse the poetic inspiration. The poet when he recalls the moment where he cherished the yellow ‘heads’ especially in ‘vacant’ and ‘pensive mood’, they just show how they have captivated the mind of the author. The essence of romanticism and versification is beautifully captured and displayed in 24 lines. The flowers are lively and sketched in a vibrant and buoyant manner.
STANZA I :In the very first stanza, the poet incorporates a figure of speech “simile” comparing himself to a “cloud”. He is feeling somewhat lonely and finds joy in the ecstatic company of daffodils. He does not specifically mention the name of the place where he has encountered them but provides the description of physical space of the yellow dwellers: “beside the lake and beneath the trees”. Daffodils are personified as beings dancing, proving their being distressed.
STANZA II : In the second stanza, The poet highlights their quality of being uncountable even though they are countable. To emphasise the idea, he uses hyperbole to convey that it is really impossible to count like the continuous stretch of stars in the Milky Way. They are jubilant, lacking anxiety, as if they are trying to show humanity that mankind has lost the capability of being happy by tearing itself apart from Nature.
STANZA III: In the third stanza, the daffodils are portrayed in a way where they are giving a tough competition to the waves in dancing. The waves could not keep pace with their energy. In such a situation, the poet, like our speaker, succumbs to the ‘jocund company’. It seems he wants to acquire the vigour as well as the joy of the flowers. The poet can also be considered as representative of the human race which needs the bliss of Nature, where daffodils acts on the behalf of Nature. During the time when Wordsworth was engaged in versification, the Industrial Revolution took hold of European nations firmly. Humans commenced to display their devotion for machines, where machines reduced the tediousness of repetitive work and consuming the employment of artisans like a hydra. The machine era gradually proved destructive for Nature. The poem addresses implicitly to the readers about the joy available in Nature where the frenzied human beings are fascinated by the new era’s inventions.
STANZA IV :In the fourth stanza, the poet talks about the importance of memory. The memory of daffodils renders him relief and acts as “bliss of solitude”. He finds joy by reliving the moment with the gleeful daffodils dancing and fluttering in the breeze through his memory. The poet seems to be gloomy about the dismal predicament of the future race of homo sapiens and their conduct.
Altogether, the poem can be considered as a piece advocating the necessity of protecting Nature from the tentacles of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution sucks the natural resources which is a serious harm to the future of human beings. Nature protection is important for obtaining happiness like the poet receiving from Daffodils.