I wandered lonely as a cloud By: William Wordsworth

By: Marisol Chavez, Marisela Abundis, Maryam Sayadian,

Hafsa Khanand Jose Reyes

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 Outdid 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.

Definitions1. O’er: mean over. "O'er" is pronounced as one syllable,

not two as in "over". 2. Daffodils: a bulbous plant that typically bears bright

yellow flowers with a long trumpet-shaped center3. Vales: a valley4. Jocund: cheerful and lighthearted5. Oft: archaic, poetic/literary, or jocular form of often.6. Pensive: reflecting deep or serious thought.7. Solitude: the state or situation of being alone.

● This is an English Romantic poem. ● Back then, everyones idea was very religious

and their notion was that God is through nature. They believed that when we are born, we are from God, babies still have clouds, which is the consciousness of God.

● As we get older, we move away from God like the chart of life. When death comes along, you are back to God’s consciousness. They also said that in the city we are lost and nature is where you find yourself where you are free. Nature in the city is basically trapped.

Structure● consist of four stanzas each with a sestet

● total of 24 lines

● Meter of the poem is in Iambic Tetrameter : each line has four iambs (unaccented syllable /accented syllable)

● This has an end rhyme

● the rhyme scheme :1st stanza-ABABCC2nd stanza-DEDEFF3rd stanza-EGEGHH4th stanza-IJIJBB

Diction and Tone● diction can be assumed as indifferent or

melancholy in the first two lines“ I wondered lonely as a cloud” also

known as “The Daffodils’” the speaker is comparing himself to a cloud that floats carelessly and yet feels distant or seperated from the world beneath him

● By the third line“when all at once I saw a crowd” the

poem shifts into a blithe/joyful attitude, an interest towards the gorgeous scene which he describes and keeps throughout the poem

-Fluttering/dancing/shine/twinkle/sprightly dance/glee/gay/jocund/wealth/bliss/pleasure fills

Literary Devices● Simile- a comparison using the word like or as

● Metaphor-an unusual substitution

● Personification-giving human qualities to something non-human

● Imagery: the use of words to represent things, actions, or ideas by sensory description.

Authors connection to the poemWilliam Wordsworth was born on April 7th, 1770 in

Cockermouth, Cumberland in the Lake District. The beautiful landscape inspired him to write poems about nature. In 1804, he wrote the poem " I Wandered

Lonely as a Cloud", a poem also known as "The Daffodils". His sister Dorothy, played an important part in his life and she also influenced him with her love of nature. The inspiration to write this poem came while he was out walking with Dorothy near Lake Ullswater in Grasmere and they came

upon some daffodils growing near the river. When he saw so many daffodils, he loved the scene very much and enjoyed the time he spent with his sister.

At the time he wrote the poem, Wordsworth was living with his wife, Mary, and sister, Dorothy. Mary contributed what Wordsworth said were the two best lines in the poem, recalling the "tranquil restoration."

:They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude

William Wordsworth Biography

● English Romantic poet

● Wordsworth attended St. John's College at Cambridge University where he published his first piece of writing, a sonnet in The European Magazine

● He was known for writing Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, considered by many to have launched the English Romantic movement.

● In 1791 Wordsworth went on a walking tour to Europe, which influenced much of his poetry.

● During his stay in France, he fell in love with a french woman named Annette Vallon.

● She bore his first child, a girl born 1792, which was named Caroline.

● Because of the lack of money and British’s tension with France,Wordsworth returned to england alone.

● Wordsworth eventually married Mary Hutchinson,(a childhood friend) and had five additional children.

● In 1802, Wordsworth returned to france with his sister Dorothy, to visit Annette and Caroline

● In 1839 William Wordsworth receives an honorary degree from Oxford University, to "thunders of applause, repeated over and over."

● Wordsworth is named Poet Laureate ( poet who holds honorary position) of England in 1843

● Wordsworth died in 1850 of pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining around the lungs. Leaving his wife, Mary Wordsworth to publish final work, The Prelude,an autobiographical poem, considered to be his masterpiece.

● In the first stanza, the poem is full of imagery and Wordsworth describes the scene when we wanders "as lonely as a cloud". He compares himself to a single cloud that is floating over the valleys and the hills. The speaker feels distant and seperated from the world below. The poet says that he is like a cloud. That's a simile.

● Then he sees a "crowd" of golden daffodils which are under the trees and beside a lake and are "fluttering and dancing in the breeze". He uses calm and soft words.

● He uses personification when he says that the daffodils are fluttering and dancing. He loves the beauty around him and it makes him feel complete and happy. He makes the daffodils come alive just for him and have a human like quality in the way they are behaving.

● When he sees a "crowd" of golden daffodils that are under the trees and beside a lake, he makes it seems like the daffodils are people. Every time he is lonely, he will remember when he saw the beautiful daffodils that make him feel less lonely and his heart will be happily dancing, too.

● In lines 3-4, the connotations come when he says a "crowd" thats is associated with groups of people, while "host" is associated with angels, because people often refer to a "host of angels."

Analysis

● In the second stanza, the speaker makes a connection with the daffodils and the stars. This stanza is still full of imagery. He compares the daffodils to the shining stars that sparkle in the Milky Way as the number of daffodils are near the river seem to be thousands in number.

● He also says that the flowers and the stars were “never-ending” and “continuous” meaning that there were so many that he assumed their were more than thousands. This is an hyperbole or an exaggeration. It reminds him of the Milky Way, because their were so many bright flowers grouped together that they seemed to be never ending. He describes them dancing while they toss their heads which is another personification. The second stanza begins with a simile comparing the shape and number of the daffodils to the numbers of stars that we call the Milky Way galaxy.

● In the third stanza, he again compares the waves of the lake to the waves of daffodils. He decides that even though the lake is "sparkling," the daffodils win because they have more "glee." He felt so happy and expressed his feeling as gay in such a jocund company. He looked at the scene for a long time, but while he was there, he couldn’t understand what he had gained from his experience. The repetition of "gaze" tells us that he kept looking at the flowers for a long time.

● Although, he can see the waves of the river move like its dancing, it doesn’t compare to the way the daffodils are making him feel. The final line of the stanza is his thanks to nature for providing him with "wealth" by putting up a show like this. He really enjoyed nature and felt like he belonged there.

● We know that the speaker is a poet because he tells us so in line 15. He speaks in the third person, but we know he’s talking about himself.

• In the last stanza, he describes how that scene affected him because whenever he is at home and on his own "in the bliss of solitude," he remembers the flowers that fills him with pleasure and his heart "dances with the daffodils". Again the use of words like "bliss"show his happiness each time the memory of those flowers and the way they danced that day comes back to him.

• First, he sets the scene when he sits on his couch, feeling worthless in life, with no great thoughts. Sometimes his mind is empty and "vacant," like a bored teenager sitting on the sofa after school. At other times he feels "pensive," which means he thinks kind of sad thoughts. You can’t be both "vacant" and "pensive" because one means "not thinking," and the other means "thinking while feeling blue."

• the phrase inward eye means the most inner personal thoughts of one. Lines 21-24, Wordsworth imagines the daffodils in his spiritual vision,so he uses the metaphor of an "inward eye."

This is a beautiful but simple poem about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. This poem was written so that you can visualize and imagine how it would look in your perspective. In most of this poem, he gave the flowers a human quality, like dancing. There are rhyming words at the end of every alternate line of the poem giving it both continuity and a sense of rhythm.

Wordsworth is relating the flowers with angelic or heavenly beings. He was most likely thinking of Dante’s Paradiso from The Divine Comedy, where all the angels and blessed souls of heaven form a big flower. In line 4, the speaker adds the word "host" to offer a connection. Also, the color of the flowers is golden like a halo. In line 10, stars are associated with angels, so the simile comparing the flowers to "twinkling" stars is another connection. In line 12, the word "sprightly" is derived from the word "sprite," meaning local spirit, almost like a fairy.

"I wandered lonely as a Cloud" is like a simpler version of "Tintern Abbey," one of Wordsworth’s other most famous works. In both poems, the memory of beautiful things provides a comfort to the speaker even after the experience of viewing them has ended. He can always count on his imagination to redo the joy of the event and to remember the spiritual wisdom that it provided. In the case of "I wandered lonely as a Cloud," we do not realize how far in the future the speaker’s perspective is found until the fourth stanza, when he describes just how often the daffodils have comforted him.

Camparison to the poem “London”

● The poem is describing how he hears and sees so much commotion and the city is always packed and busy that he can’t find himself. That every time he reaches a corner he sees new things, and there isn’t a peaceful day.

● Completely opposite from nature, where its quiet and beautiful. He believed that in nature you can find who you truly are and that nature will always put a smile to your face. In the city, there isn’t really enough time for God since God is through nature. They felt that nature is a way to communicate with God.

Quiz!1) Definition of jocund:

2) What type of poem is this?

3)What is the meter of the poem?

4) What’s the difference between vacant and pensive?

5) Who played an important part in Wordsworth life?

6) Why did Wordsworth go back to france?

7)Why does the speaker compare himself to a cloud?

8) What kind of attitude does the tone shift?

9) Why does he compare the daffodils with the Milky way?

10) True or false: the speaker feels angry and hates nature