Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

William Wordsworth - Poetry Analysis

 

            William Wordsworth's poem "I wandered lonely as a cloud" is considered one of the best poems in history. The story that the speaker tells in the poem portrays all his emotions brought from nature. He starts by telling that he was wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys and then he saw thousands daffodils twinkle in the milky way and the water waves that danced beside them brought him joy and company. He never knew what wealth that image would bring him, until he was feeling "vacant" or "pensive", and this would help him to enjoy and re-feel the same emotions. The structure, language and the sound devices, support the theme of "I wandered lonely as a cloud" which is satisfaction and inspiration coming from nature, that is one of the main principles of Romanticism. .
             The speaker starts with "I wandered lonely as a cloud" meaning that he was all lost in his thoughts wandering like a cloud "That floats on high o'er vales and hills". Then on the next line "When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils" he is surprised and impressed of this beautiful view that is "Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." In the second stanza, the speaker continues to describe and compare how the daffodils were "twinkling" and "shining" on the milky way. Then he upholds telling how "They stretched in never-ending line" in a margin of a bay and personifies the daffodils that they were tossing their heads and dancing. On the third stanza the speaker shifts to the lake telling how the waves were dancing but they "Outdid the sparkling waves in glee", then he tells that the poet could only be happy, in such a "jocund" sight. When he says "I gazed-and gazed-but little thought" means that he couldn't think what "wealth" that view brought him.


Essays Related to William Wordsworth - Poetry Analysis