Friday, May 6, 2016

How can Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" ("The Daffodils") be paraphrased?

Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (or "The Daffodils") is not only about nature but also about nature's effect on the individual. Wordsworth uses four stanzas with a rhyme scheme ababcc for each stanza.


In the opening stanza, he is simply walking alone somewhere near his home in England's Lake District, probably thinking about nothing in particular. He compares himself to a cloud that is just drifting along over the hills and valleys. Suddenly he comes upon a field of many ("crowd," "host") "golden daffodils" next to the lake. They are swaying in the wind which causes Wordsworth to personify them by saying they are "dancing."


In stanza two, he simply comments on the great number of daffodils in the field. They are as numerous as the stars in the Milky Way. They dot the land around a bay of the lake. With one look he can see as many as ten thousand. Again he tells us they seem to be dancing. 


In stanza three, he suggests the waves in the bay are also dancing but that the daffodils seem to be happier ("glee"). At this point, Wordsworth changes the focus of the poem to himself. He was lonely at the beginning of the poem, but is now quite happy to be surrounded by all the flowers who seem to be so cheerful ("jocund"). As he looks at the flowers, he never stops to consider how viewing them has benefited him.


In the final stanza, these benefits become apparent. He says that sometimes, when he is in deep thought, the image of the flowers "flash" in his "inward eye." This is most certainly a reference to his soul or his spiritual self. The flowers bring great happiness to his spirit when he pictures them in his mind. He is filled with overwhelming pleasure just by considering the dancing flowers.

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