I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\r\n\r\nPublished 1807<\/div>\r\nI wandered lonely as a cloud\r\nThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,\r\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,\r\nA host, of golden daffodils;\r\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,\r\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.\r\n\r\nContinuous as the stars that shine\r\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,\r\nThey stretched in never-ending line\r\nAlong the margin of a bay:\r\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,\r\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.\r\n\r\nThe waves beside them danced; but they\r\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:\r\nA poet could not but be gay,\r\nIn such a jocund company:\r\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought\r\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:\r\n\r\nFor oft, when on my couch I lie\r\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,\r\nThey flash upon that inward eye\r\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;\r\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,\r\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\r\n<\/div>\r\nAnalysis<\/h1>\r\nTheme<\/h2>\r\nWhat is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.\r\nForm<\/h2>\r\nNow note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nI wandered lonely as a cloud\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\r\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.\r\n\r\nDiscerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\r\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\r\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.\r\n\r\nNow note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.\r\n\r\nBecause there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.\r\n\r\nNote that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.\r\nFigurative Language<\/h2>\r\nWordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note \"I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time\" versus \"I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.\"\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nEmbedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.\r\n\r\nThere are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.\r\nContext<\/h2>\r\n\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.\r\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\r\n\r\nActivities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \t- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n\r\n \t- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"
![\"Sketch](\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/297\/2019\/02\/wwordsworth-196x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\nWith sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\nWordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\n
Continuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n
The waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\n
For oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Analysis<\/h1>\nTheme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n\n\nActivities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\n- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n\n- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Analysis<\/h1>\r\nTheme<\/h2>\r\nWhat is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.\r\nForm<\/h2>\r\nNow note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nI wandered lonely as a cloud\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\r\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.\r\n\r\nDiscerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\r\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\r\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.\r\n\r\nNow note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.\r\n\r\nBecause there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.\r\n\r\nNote that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.\r\nFigurative Language<\/h2>\r\nWordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note \"I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time\" versus \"I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.\"\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nEmbedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.\r\n\r\nThere are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.\r\nContext<\/h2>\r\n\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.\r\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\r\n\r\nActivities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \t- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n\r\n \t- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\nWith sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\nWordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\n
Continuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n
The waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\n
For oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Analysis<\/h1>\nTheme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n\n\nActivities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\n- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n\n- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Form<\/h2>\r\nNow note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nI wandered lonely as a cloud\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,\r\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\r\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.\r\n\r\nDiscerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\r\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:\r\n\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\r\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\r\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.\r\n\r\nNow note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.\r\n\r\nBecause there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.\r\n\r\nNote that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.\r\nFigurative Language<\/h2>\r\nWordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note \"I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time\" versus \"I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.\"\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nEmbedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.\r\n\r\nThere are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.\r\nContext<\/h2>\r\n\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.\r\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\r\n\r\nActivities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \t- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n\r\n \t- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\nWith sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\nWordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\n
Continuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n
The waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\n
For oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Analysis<\/h1>\nTheme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n\n\nActivities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\n- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n\n- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Figurative Language<\/h2>\r\nWordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note \"I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time\" versus \"I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.\"\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nWordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.\r\n\r\nEmbedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.\r\n\r\nThere are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.\r\nContext<\/h2>\r\n\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.\r\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\r\n\r\nActivities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \t- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n\r\n \t- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\nWith sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\nWordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\n
Continuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n
The waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\n
For oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Analysis<\/h1>\nTheme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n\n\nActivities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\n- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n\n- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Related Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\r\n\r\nActivities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\n \t- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n\r\n \t- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\nWith sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\nWordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\n
Continuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n
The waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\n
For oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Analysis<\/h1>\nTheme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\nRelated Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n\n\nActivities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\n- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n\n- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Activities<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n
- \r\n \t
- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\r\n \t
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n
- \r\n \t
- \"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\" by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<\/p>\n
Biography<\/h1>\n
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, at Cockermouth in Cumbria in northeast England, near the Lake District, whose natural beauty would inspire many of Wordsworth\u2019s poems. His mother died when he was just 8 and his father, a lawyer, died when Wordsworth was 13. The five Wordsworth children were scattered and spent their childhood with different relatives.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth attended Cambridge University from 1787 to 1791. He studied French, and after he graduated, he went to France to gain fluency in the language. In Blois, he met Annette Vallon, whom he hoped to marry. They had a daughter, Caroline. Short of money, Wordsworth returned to England, planning to return to France as soon as he was able. But in the wake of the French Revolution, which Wordsworth ardently supported, and the subsequent leadership of Napoleon, England and France were at war. Wordsworth could not return and would not for many years.<\/p>\n
In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset. Two years later they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near Wordsworth\u2019s dear friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they produced a collection of poems, Lyrical Ballads<\/em>, published in 1798. It would prove to be a milestone in the history of English poetry, one of the books that ushered in the Romantic movement (from 1800 to 1850, approximately). Coleridge\u2019s \u201cThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u201d and Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d are among the most famous poems in this collection.<\/p>\n
With sufficient independent means, Wordsworth settled in to the life of a poet, gaining fame and recognition for his work over the years, culminating in 1842, when he was named England\u2019s poet laureate. \u201cOde: Intimations of Immortality\u201d and the autobiographical The Prelude<\/em> are among his more famous long poems. He also wrote scores of much-loved short lyric poems and sonnets.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth\u2019s personal life was filled with joy and sorrow. In 1802, he married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson and they settled into Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District and raised a happy family, which included the beloved aunt Dorothy. Unfortunately, over the years, he feuded with Coleridge, three of his children died, one of his brothers, a ship\u2019s captain, was drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. He was no longer the idealistic, radical young poet who supported the cries for social justice that sparked the French Revolution. His political views evolved, becoming increasingly conservative. He died on April 23, 1850.<\/p>\n
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud<\/h1>\n
\nPublished 1807<\/div>\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\nA host, of golden daffodils;
\nBeside the lake, beneath the trees,
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze.<\/p>\nContinuous as the stars that shine
\nAnd twinkle on the milky way,
\nThey stretched in never-ending line
\nAlong the margin of a bay:
\nTen thousand saw I at a glance,
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\nThe waves beside them danced; but they
\nOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
\nA poet could not but be gay,
\nIn such a jocund company:
\nI gazed\u2014and gazed\u2014but little thought
\nWhat wealth the show to me had brought:<\/p>\nFor oft, when on my couch I lie
\nIn vacant or in pensive mood,
\nThey flash upon that inward eye
\nWhich is the bliss of solitude;
\nAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,
\nAnd dances with the daffodils.\n<\/p><\/div>\nAnalysis<\/h1>\n
Theme<\/h2>\n
What is the theme of this poem? The poet describes his appreciation\u2014indeed, his awe\u2014of nature\u2019s beauty. Out on a walk one day, he sees a field of golden daffodils, seeming to stretch in a \u201cnever-ending line.\u201d Here is a widely shared human experience, a common theme among poets. We have all been overwhelmed by nature\u2019s beauty at some point in our lives. But note that Wordsworth takes the theme one step further. Experiences as significant as the one described in the poem have staying power. Days, month, years later, perhaps one day when we are simply resting on the couch, that image will flash across our minds\u2014today, we might look at the picture we took with our cellphones\u2014and we will experience again the serenity that natures beauty provides.<\/p>\n
Form<\/h2>\n
Now note the form of the poem. It consists of twenty-four lines, divided into four sections\u2014that is, stanzas or verses\u2014each six lines in length. Read the poem out loud, in a way that exaggerates its rhythm. You will note that each line has four stressed sounds or beats, preceded by a less stressed sound. To diagram this pattern, we assign a curved or a smile line to the less stressed beat and a slash to the stressed beat.<\/p>\n
~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nI wandered lonely as a cloud
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nWhen all at once I saw a crowd,
\n~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nA host, of golden daffodils.<\/div>\nThe stressed-unstressed unit is called an iamb. Because there are four iambs in each line, we designate the rhythm pattern of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d as iambic tetrameter. There are four rhythm patterns in English poetry: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. A line of poetry will typically contain four (tetrameter) or five (pentameter) units, also called \u201cbeats\u201d or \u201cfeet.\u201d Examples of a variety of rhythm patterns are presented in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Discerning poetry readers might notice that Wordsworth alters the iambic tetrameter rhythm in the last line of the first stanza, which would have to be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nFluttering and dancing in the breeze,<\/div>\nand, again, in the last line of the second stanza, which would be scanned:<\/p>\n
\/\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \/
\nTossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/div>\nPoets will sometimes alter their rhythm pattern to achieve a certain effect. The change in rhythm to describe the daffodils \u201cfluttering\u201d and \u201ctossing their heads\u201d accentuates the movement of the flowers, which so captured the poet\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
Now note the words at the end of each line of each verse. The first and the third lines rhyme; the second and fourth lines rhyme; the final two lines rhyme. There is a pattern, a scheme to the rhyme. We illustrate this pattern by assigning small letters to words that rhyme. So the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme of each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d is ababcdcdee.<\/p>\n
Because there is a consistent rhythm pattern and consistent rhyme scheme to \u201cI Wandered Lonely,\u201d we say this is a regular verse poem. There are two other genres or forms of poetry: blank verse and free verse. We will see examples of each in this chapter. There are also several minor forms of poetry, usually types of regular verse. The most common are the sonnet, elegy, ode, villanelle, epic, and dramatic monologue. We will see examples of each in this chapter.<\/p>\n
Note that each stanza of \u201cI Wandered Lonely\u201d forms a single sentence. Remember that the sentence and not the line is the unit of meaning in a poem. When you are reading a poem, pay attention to the punctuation, and discern the meaning of the complete sentence in poetry, not each individual line.<\/p>\n
Figurative Language<\/h2>\n
Wordsworth opens the poem by comparing the poet, wandering alone through the woods to a cloud floating high above him. He later writes that the flowers were \u201ccontinuous as the stars that shine.\u201d These comparisons are a form of figurative language called a simile. A simile is cousin to a metaphor, which is also a comparison used to describe more vividly an object in the poem. The difference is that a simile signals the comparison with the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas,\u201d while a metaphor asserts the comparison directly. Note “I felt like a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time” versus “I was a fish out of water when I went skating for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils \u201cstretched in never-ending line.\u201d In reality, of course, the line ended, but the poet wants to stress that he was so overwhelmed by the multitude of the beautiful flowers that it seemed as if they never ended. He is using here a form of figurative language called hyperbole. Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration, not to deceive, but to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Wordsworth writes that the daffodils danced and tossed their heads. But they can\u2019t dance, and they don\u2019t have heads. Here the poet uses personification, which ascribes human characteristics to an object that is not human in order to achieve a poetic effect.<\/p>\n
Embedded in the types of figurative language explained above and in other lines throughout the poem, Wordsworth appeals to our sense sight, helping us visualize his experience. We see the poet out on his country walk and, later, recalling his walk while resting on his couch. The daffodils dance and play, stars \u201ctwinkle on the milky way,\u201d the waves along the margin of the bay sparkle. This is imagery, words in succession that arouse readers\u2019 senses\u2014the senses of sight and sound, especially, though sometimes also the senses of taste and touch.<\/p>\n
There are other forms of figurative language besides the five referenced here (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, and imagery). We will see examples of the others in our discussion of other poems.<\/p>\n
Context<\/h2>\n
\u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d is based upon a true story which occurred on April 15, 1802.\u00a0 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy were taking a walk near Glencoyne Bay in England\u2019s beautiful Lake District, where they lived. Dorothy kept a journal that describes the experience in language and detail similar to that Wordsworth uses in the poem. The Grasmere Journal<\/em> was meant to be private, but it is of great value to English literary history, and it was published in 1897, about forty years after Dorothy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Related Activities and Questions for Study and Discussion<\/h1>\n
\n\n Activities<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n- \n
- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n
- \n
- “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is free of known copyright restrictions in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Attributions<\/h2>
- William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a Public Domain<\/a> license<\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-68","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","license-cc-by"],"part":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/revisions\/321"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/65"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/68\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/provincialenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
- Listen to \u201cI Wandered Lonely as a Cloud\u201d with musical accompaniment<\/a><\/a><\/li>\n
- Have you had an experience similar to the one Wordsworth describes, an experience when you were so overwhelmed with some aspect of nature\u2019s beauty that you take pleasure from it still? Describe that experience in one or two paragraphs\u2014or in a poem of your own, if that is an option your teacher will accept.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
![William Wordsworth<\/a> is licensed under a](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:William_Wordsworth_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_12933.jpg\"){kind=link}