Page 168 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Unit 9: Daffodils by William Wordsworth

9.5 Poem Notes

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.

!
Caution Remember that Wordsworth has tried to quantify the amount of daffodils by
using the phrase ‘ten thousand’. It does not mean that there were literally ten thousand
daffodils. Wordsworth just wanted to express that he saw a large number of daffodils.

9.5.1 Explanation

The poem “Daffodils” is also known by the title “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, a lyrical poem
written by William Wordsworth in 1804. It was published in 1815 in ‘Collected Poems’ with four
stanzas. It portrays a moment on April 15, 1802, when Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were
walking near a lake at Grasmere, Cumbria County, England, and came upon a shore lined with
daffodils. He is now looking back on how much of an impression it has had on him.

In the poem, ‘The Daffodils’ the poet William Wordsworth has described how he once came
across numerous daffodils rocking in the breeze. The beauty of the daffodils enthralled the poet
and became a treasured experience for him.

This poem contains vivid imagery and reflects the pleasure the poet felt at the sight of
the daffodils.

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