[I wandered lonely as a Cloud]
-William Wordsworth
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 shew 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.
The poem “[I wandered lonely as a Cloud]” by William Wordsworth began as mysterious, yet intriguing. On my first read, I noticed basic details. The poem has a title, which is also the first line of the poem. The word “Cloud” obviously stands out, and eventually, I would come to the conclusion that it is a key metaphor for this poem. Each stanza is six lines long, with the second and fourth lines indented in each one. There are a fair amount of rhymes in the poem, typically occurring in adjacent lines. Examples include “Cloud” and “Crowd” (1/3), “Hills” and “Daffodils” (2/4), “trees” and “breeze” (5/6), “glance” and “dance” (11/12), and numerous similar other rhymes. Despite noticing these basic details, I still struggled to find any underlying meaning behind the poem. My next step was to attempt to break down the plot of each stanza. In the first stanza, the speaker describes themselves as a “Cloud,” which floats high above the ground. The speaker notices a collection of daffodils, which move with the breeze. In the second stanza, the speaker continues to describe the movement of the daffodils, stating that they are “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (12). It also establishes that the daffodils are near a bay. In the third stanza, the speaker describes the daffodils as joyful, and they are outdoing the waves. Finally, the fourth stanza immediately stood out. There is a clear shift between a focus on the daffodils in the first three stanzas to a focus on the speaker in the fourth stanza. In this fourth stanza, the speaker describes a state of self-reflection and notes that the image of the daffodils fills their mind with pleasure during this state. The speaker explains that “In vacant or in pensive mood,” the daffodils “flash upon that inward eye” and “then my heart with pleasure fills” (20-23).
Upon reaching this understanding of the last stanza, I decided that I had completed paraphrasing. At the end of this process, I felt like I understood the poem much better, and realized that it must be a description of how simple pleasures, like the daffodils, can affect an individual. At this time, I also found it necessary to clear up the definitions of a few words. The first word, “o’er” in the third line, I confirmed was another spelling of “over.” While it is a small detail, I believe that Wordsworth’s spelling creates a round, light sound that embodies the feeling of floating, and is representative of the poem’s diction as a whole. Another unfamiliar word was “jocund” as part of the phrase “In such a jocund company” (16). “Jocund” means cheerful and lighthearted, which contributes to the overall gleeful tone of this poem. Upon inspecting this line, I began to find a lot more meaning in my analysis. Despite the fact that the speaker is alone with nothing but the sight of flowers, the speaker explains that they feel comforted by the company of the daffodils. Specifically, the speaker, implied to be a poet, could “not but be gay” in such a “jocund company” (15-16). The intentional use of the word “company” in contrast to the speaker’s solitude ultimately illustrates how one can still find joy in observation of the world even without others to share it with. I also uncovered that the word “shew” is another spelling of “show,” allowing the line “what wealth the shew to me had brought” to be much more clear: it expands on the idea of the speaker’s joy found in the observation of the daffodils, and I believe it demonstrates that the speaker finds immense value in the appreciation of the flowers.
By this point, it was clear that I was beginning to derive some meaning from this poem. I decided to move on to declaring a clear diction or tone for the entire poem. I believe this poem uses primarily joyful and lighthearted language, embodied in the metaphor of the cloud, and the imagery of the dancing daffodils. Ultimately, I believe this leads to a greater theme of finding happiness in solitude. This conclusion only came through working this poem: First understanding its plot, then weaving that in with a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the stylistic techniques used, and finally an overall takeaway from this poem.
Hi Matthew. I think this was a very interesting poem that you picked, and I enjoyed reading about your thought process as you broke it down. I also agree with your identification of the shift between stanza 3 and 4, as it clearly aims more towards the speaker. I also think that the diction utilized in the poem and the choice of the usage of words such as jocund really help add to the joyous tone that is spread throughout the poem. I also agree with your overall derivation of the poem’s meaning about how the speaker can find his happiness despite being in solitude. However, I cannot help but wonder if there is some hidden deeper meaning the daffodils. Perhaps they just represent something that he sees figuratively when the speaker feels lonely or the speaker feels as if their heart reflects the field of daffodils. I also really like the idea that the speaker acting as a cloud that you identified, merely floating above and appreciating the scenery, so perhaps this is also a reflection of the speaker’s state of mind. Overall, I thought you did a great job breaking down the poem and the journey that you went on with this poem was clearly very nuanced.
Hi Matthew, I really liked the clear path you took when analyzing this poem. Compared to the poem that Ethan used for his essay, which I just read, your poem doesn’t jump out to me at first. There are no crazy jolts in the structure, and that way that the poem flows, I can only characterize it as being “round” for some reason. Nonetheless, the way you went about annotating this poem for details makes a lot of sense. You started with rhyming and patterns, which helps reveal more about individual words and the general theme of what Wordsworth chose to include in his poem. I also felt that it was very helpful of you to include the definition of Jocund, because I had also never heard of that myself. One thing that I noticed, which led me to think “wow, this is a round poem,” is the word choice used. Everything seems fluffy and fluttery, like butterflies almost, “cloud, floats, valley, dancing, Milky, sparkling.” One final note, I am still confused on why Wordsworth chose to use a cloud as a representation of himself. When I think of a cloud, I picture a happy white cloud in the sky, unless there is a storm. It seems odd to me that he would use it to characterize something as alone when there are many other things he could have used.
How you constructed your analysis and paragraphs in this essay not only tells us how you interpreted the poem, but the specific methods you used to do so. In a contrast to my essay, where I went (and will continue to go) linearly from the first to last parts, regardless of the order in which the interpretations or questions came to me, you bounced around the poem and provided the reader with a more unique and organic thought process on the poem. With the myriad natural visuals and airy diction like you mentioned, including “floats” (line 2), “fluttering” (line 6), and “dancing” (line 6) being used to portray the setting, reading this almost put me in a daydreaming mindset, picturing myself among the fields and clouds as the speaker is. No matter where the speaker goes, they, too, are comforted by this imagery, whether “[lying] on [their] couch” (line 19), or directly in the presence of that “jocund company” (line 16) you focused on in the analysis. I feel as though among the company of people, the speaker has to sift through loads upon loads of corruption and anger and whatever other negative emotions exist in the outside world, while he doesn’t have to feel that way around flowers who will not display any of those aforementioned traits. The company of plants and skies refuses to be anything but pleasant, making them the best company the speaker could ask for.
Hey Madler,
The first thing I noticed reading your poem was that the rhyme scheme stayed consistent throughout each stanza. This is an ABABCC rhyme scheme. To me, this dictated no change or shift. I was very interested in your justification for shortening over to o’er, stating that it rounds the word out and contributes to the light, airy nature of the context. I would have never seen this contributing detail in diction. Additionally, you intrigued me when you pointed out the change in focus from stanza to stanza, going from speaker to daffodils and then back to the speaker. I also understand your perspective when you concluded that the poet meant to communicate being able to appreciate the earth without company, as he disconnects himself from the “crowd” or the daffodils. However, I feel that there is more to these symbols in nature than just that. The daffodils coordinate with the bay to make waves. While one outshines the other, they are still working in tandem. I am not sure what this means for the overall meaning of the poem but I believe it is worth taking into consideration. Maybe the speaker still does have a longing for company, or maybe, since they are a poet canonically, they are saying that solitude is essential to making art.