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Samantha Garcia (834) ENC 1102
Mr. Temple
1/23/14
I wandered lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils)
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.
William Wordsworth (539-540)
Dancing flowers bring Joy
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As Wordsworth wandered through the valleys and hills, he abruptly became secluded and mopey. Whilst passing by a lake in the Lake District of Northern England he observed the striking daffodils swaying in the breeze. There were thousands amongst thousands of the buttery colored blossom to be seen, all of which were dancing. Wordsworth’s lonesomeness was substituted by delight, but he didn’t even comprehend what an extraordinary thing he received until later. Whenever William is feeling blue, he simply reflects of the daffodils and his heart flutters with delight. In “Daffodils”, William Wordsworth displays his newly found joy though imagery that is shaped by the numerous metaphors and similes Wordsworth uses.
Wordsworth unbolts the poem with letting the audience know what his landscape is. He directly uses metaphors not to highlight his physical location, but rather his frame of mind. All through the poem, he uses imagery. In the first stanza, the speaker is wandering “as lonely as a cloud” associating himself to that of a secluded cloud and then, while using personification, sees the “crowd” of daffodils which are beneath a tree and alongside a lake “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. The association to the cloud proposes free floating and lethargy. The speaker is tranquil. A "host of golden daffodils" charms his attention.
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It is in the second stanza, line seven, Wordsworth uses a simileto associate the amount of daffodils to the infinite amount of the stars in the Milky Way, generating a relation between Nature and the Universe. He compares the amount of florae to that of the stars using hyperboles such as “never-ending” and “continuous”.
In first line of the third stanza, the speaker uses personification and comparison. He can grasp the waves of the river stirring like in a dance however it is nothing like the recital the daffodils are giving just for him. The daffodils “out-did” the waves in a way that is stimulating to him as he gazes upon the “jocund company” he is with. The spot-on emotion of him is being “gay” at the performance given to him and his usage of words such as “sparking”, “jocund” and “glee” attest these feelings. The last line of the stanza is Wordsworth showing appreciation towards nature for giving him “wealth” for setting up such a performance.
Wordsworth describes in the last stanza how his time consumed with the daffodils affected him for the reason that each time he is in his home by himself in “the bliss of solitude” the reminiscence of the flowers consumes him with joy as if his heart “dances with the daffodils”. His usage of the word “bliss” demonstrates his cheerfulness each time the recollection of those blossoms and the dance they put on that day come back to him. The subliminal and the soul obtain the bigger impact from the experience as the daffodils "flash upon that inward eye."
This poem is a modest one about the exquisiteness of Mother Nature and how inspirational it is. The notion of recalling the splendor of nature even when not in its company appears in numerous of Wordsworth's future poems, such as "Tintern Abbey," "Ode; Intimations of Immortality," and "The Solitary Reaper." The imagery that Wordsworth uses is so clear that it’s almost as if he is painting a scene for the reader. There are rhyming words at the conclusion of every other line of the poem allowing it both steadiness and a sense of tempo all through. The poem contains four six-line stanzas, each which follow an ababcc rhyme structure and are written in iambic tetrameter. Wordsworth also uses alliteration and consonance to produce rhythm. In order to comprehend yourself and your place in the world, you must bond with nature.
Works Cited
Wordsworth, William. “I wandered lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils).” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 7th Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs, editors. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 539-540. Print.