I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
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I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (known as "The Daffodils") is an 1804 poem by William Wordsworth. It was inspired by an April 15, 1802 event in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a "long belt" of daffodils. It was first published in 1807, and a revised version was released in 1815.
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. Like most works by Wordsworth, it is romantic in nature.[1]
In the "Nation's Favourite Poems", a poll carried out by the BBC's Bookworm,[2] I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud came fifth.[3]
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[edit] Outline
Like the maiden's song in "The Solitary Reaper," the memory of the daffodils is etched in the speaker's mind and soul to be cherished forever. When he's feeling lonely, dull or depressed, he thinks of the daffodils and cheers up. The full impact of the daffodils' beauty (symbolizing the beauty of nature) did not strike him at the moment of seeing them, when he stared blankly at them but much later when he sat alone, sad and lonely and remembered them.
The inspiration for the poem may have been a walk he took with his sister Dorothy around Farndale, (a small village in North Yorkshire).[1] Dorothy later wrote in reference to this walk:
I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing. (Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journal)
[edit] Popular usage
The poem is covered and taught in the 7th grade of most schools of the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board of India. It is also part of the English Literature GCSE course in some British examination boards. In New South Wales, Australia, it is commonly used by teachers in the current HSC syllabus topic: Inner Journeys. It is used to convey a message of hope and is widely used throughout both the Advanced and Standard courses.
Because it is one of the best known poems in the English language and is also unabashedly romantic and sentimental, it has frequently been the subject of parody. Some recent examples can be found here, here, here, and here. In the satirical cartoon series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Bullwinkle J. Moose read the poem and was arrested by Boris Badenov, portraying a sheriff (the field Bullwinkle was picking the daffodils from had a sign prohibiting daffodil picking).
A reference to this poem can be heard on the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis (1974) at the beginning of part of the suite "The Colony of Slippermen" called "The Arrival". Portions are also spoken in Dan Ireland's 2005 British film, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. In Anastasia Krupnik, by Lois Lowry, there is a scene in which a college poetry class discusses the poem.
The poem is extensively referenced in Jamaica Kincaid's novel Lucy.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Michael J. Cummings (2008). "I wandered lonely as a cloud: A study guide". http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/IWandered.html. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ "The Nation's Favourite Poems". BBC Shop. http://www.bbcshop.com/Drama+Arts/The-Nations-Favourite-Poems/invt/9780563382898. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ Julian Budden (2003). "The Nation's Favourite Poems (review)". Indie London. http://www.indielondon.co.uk/books/nations_favourite_poems.html. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
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