The Analysis of Figures of Speech.

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

Diana Elena Crăciun,

Philology German – English
Second Year

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

BY 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 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.1

1
The revised edition of 1815 is the one quoted here. Wordsworth added a series of modifications to the initial
version, replacing "dancing" with "golden"; "along" with "beside"; and "ten thousand" with "fluttering and". He
also added a stanza between the first and second, and changed "laughing" to "jocund".
 “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", also known as "Daffodils”, is a lyric
poem by William Wordsworth. Initially published in 1807 in the section “Moods of My Own
Mind” of “Poems in Two Volumes”, a revised edition of it was released in 1815. It is one of
the best known English poems.
The poem was inspired by an event that took place in 1802, when William
Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a “long belt” of daffodils. However,
Wordsworth started writing about it only much later, based on Dorothy’s journal. At that time
Wordsworth was living with his wife Mary (who apparently also contributed to the poem) and
his sister in Grasmere in England's Lake District. The nationwide fame of Wordworth’s poem
gave birth in recent times to daffodil tourism in the area.
The plot appears extremely simple: during a walk, the poet discovers a field of
daffodils by a lake and their image remains with him even after long time. The beauty of the
poem lies in its figures of speech and the harmonious general tone they create.
The simile “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, which also gives the title of the poem,
appears in the first line. The poet’s strong presence is felt from the very beginning, as the
entire poem is very personal, a mood of the author’s own mind; from this point of view, many
regard Wordsworth as a groundbreaking influence on modern poetry. The role of the simile is
to link “one thing to another in such a way as to clarify or to intensify an image” (Mihăilescu,
2006, 61). The verbal nucleus “wandered” suggested an aimless, slow-paced movement, but
the effect is further increased in association with the image of a cloud “that floats on high o'er
vales and hills”. The discovery of the daffodil field is sudden and the poet is amazed by their
large number, suggested by the humanizing metaphor “a crowd, a host of golden daffodils”.
Here the word “host” is most likely used with its archaic sense of “great number” or
“multitude”. The personification barely suggested by the word “crowd” is further stressed in
the last line: “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”.
The second stanza, added only in the 1815 edition, insists on the splendid image and
the great number of the daffodils. The stanza begins with yet another simile, comparing the
golden flowers with the stars of the Milky Way: “Continuous as the stars that shine/ And
twinkle on the milky way, / They stretched in never-ending line/ Along the margin of a bay”.
The simile is suggestive both in terms of colour and the number of the daffodils. The epithet
“never-ending line” also refers to the multitude of the flowers. Quite symmetrical, the stanza
ends with a personification of the daffodils “tossing their heads in sprightly dance”. The
epithet “sprightly dance”, signifying lively, full of spirit, is of much greater effect than the
word “dance” alone would have been and it creates a merry image of the daffodils.
In fact, the entire scenery reflects feelings of joy, harmony and peace. The waves of
the lake are also personified, for they too dance. However, they cannot match the field of
daffodils in merriment. A sensitive heart, such as that of a poet, is easily moved by the beauty
of the sight. The cheerful atmosphere of this natural corner is one more time stressed by the
epithet „jocund company”, which also has a personifying value because of the noun
“company”. The poet spent quite some time admiring the show, idea suggested by the
repetition of the verb “gazed”.
As an introduction for the next and last stanza, in the last line of the third stanza
Wordsworth speaks about the wealth this image brought to him; the wealth is, of course, a
spiritual one, the kind of wealth that simple things can often bring. The last stanza is much
deeper written that the previous ones. The image of the daffodils became a pleasant memory
for the poet, who, in times of meditation or rest, sometimes recalls that marvelous natural
scenery and the joyous feelings he had at its sight. The last stanza reminds one of Marcel
Proust’s method in “À la recherche du temps perdu”, where the “lost time” was recovered
through intuitive memory. The madeleine cookie was the means through which memory was
triggered in Proust’s monumental novel, whereas for Wordsworth the daffodils seemed to be
forever linked with the happy feelings of that particular moment. The poet talks about the
“inward eye”, that may suggest memory, more active in “the bliss of solitude” than in the
company of others. There is one more personification in the last line, that of the poet’s heart
dancing with the daffodils, therefore, the last impression is that of lightheartedness,
merriment.
The ideas and the feelings expressed in the poem “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” are
typical for the Romantic Movement: nature is presented in an idyllic way, as a source of
happiness, peace and interior balance for people. Nature thrives unattended. The daffodils
proliferate in splendor along the shore of the lake without the need for human
attention. Romanticism was a revolutionary reaction in arts to rationalism and the classic
formalism of the Enlightment. Therefore, the human psyche, with its imagination, emotions
and intuition is another primary concern of the Romantics. The conception about religion also
changed during the Romantic period and in many of Wordsworth’s works, including the poem
“I wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, elements of pantheism can be traced.
In conclusion, the simplicity of this brilliant piece of poetry by William Wordsworth is
only apparent. At a closer look, “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is remarkable both in terms
of ideas and of figures of speech and it fully deserves the reputation of a gem of English
poetry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Mihăilescu, C., “Introduction to Stylistics”, Sibiu, 2006

2. Wordsworth, W., “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” [online,
th
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174790, Accessed 28 December 2014]