I wandered lonely as a cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
The poem is rich with imagery, and in the first stanza,
Wordsworth describes the scene as he wanders "as lonely as a cloud". He compares himself to a solitary cloud that is floating over the valleys and the hills and then he sees a "crowd" of golden daffodils which are under the trees and beside a lake and are "fluttering and dancing in the breeze".
His choice of words is soft and gentle and it is almost as if there is silent music in the background to which the daffodils are dancing.
He is admiring the beauty around him and capturing a beautiful snatched moment in time that nature has presented to him. It is as if the daffodils have come alive just for him and they have an almost human like quality in the way they are behaving.
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Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
In the second stanza, he compares the daffodils to the shining stars that twinkle in the Milky Way as the number of daffodils lined near the river seem to be thousands in number.
He compares the quantity of the flowers to the continuity of the stars using words like "never-ending" and "continuous".
His words paint the picture of all of them dancing while they toss their heads in a "sprightly dance" There is an almost funny aspect to the flowers as they "toss" their heads like a group of dancers performing for someone on a stage.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
In the third stanza, though he can see the waves of the river move as if in a dance it is no comparison to the performance the daffodils are providing just for him.
They outdo the "sparkling" waves in a way that is exhilarating to him as he looks at the scene and the "jocund" company he is in.
He cannot help but feel "gay" at the show presented to him and his choice of words like "sparkling" and "glee" and "jocund" reflect these feelings.
The final line of the stanza is his indirect thanks to nature for providing him with "wealth" by putting up a show like this.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
In the last stanza, he describes how that scene has affected him because whenever he is indoors in his home and on his own "in the bliss of solitude" the memory of those flowers fills him with pleasure and it is as if his heart "dances with the daffodils". Again the use of words like "bliss"show his happiness each time the memory of those flowers and the way they danced that day comes back to him.
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