Daffodils Summary
The poem 'Daffodils' or 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' was composed in the year 1802. The title of the poem informs about the loneliness of the poet which he faces after the death of his brother. However, the endless view of the golden daffodils in a field across the lake filled him with joy. This view was the greatest gift of nature to him. Whenever he remembers it, his depressed mind and heart find the joy of living again.
Main Summary of Daffodils
The speaker says that wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”
Form
The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.
Commentary
This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless.
The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas.
The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud—“I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.
Background
The poem was written in 1804, inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils while travelling in the Lake District of England. It was first published in 1807 in “Poems in Two Volumes” and a revised version was published in 1815. For more details regarding the poem, you may visit this Wikipedia link.
Title
The original title of the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is merely the first line of the poem. It is somewhat misleading, as it suggests that there is something about the poet’s loneliness in the poem. But the poem is all about the beauty of the daffodils and how they brought happiness to the poet. So some anthologists including Palgrave titled this poem as “Daffodils” or “The Daffodils” in their collections.
Main Theme of The Daffodils
As for the theme, the poem is all about the beauty of nature. Wordsworth is often termed a nature-lover. And the Romantic Movement that he started with Samuel Tailor Coleridge is mainly characterized by the love and celebration of nature and beauty. This poem is representative of Romanticism in English literature.
Structure of The Poem Daffodils
To talk about the structure of the poem, it is really very simple in form and language. Four stanzas of six lines each make the entire poem 24 lines long. The rhyme scheme for each stanza is ABABCC, were the first (A) and the second (B) lines rhyme with the third (A) and the fourth (B) respectively. These are followed by a rhyming couplet (CC). The poem is also rich in its use of figures of speech.
And finally, it’s a great example of a ‘real poem’, that is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, as opined by the poet himself. As the poem expresses the feelings of the poet himself, it is a subjective poem, one of the most important characteristics of Romanticism.
Explanation of the Poem Daffodil - I Wonder Lonely As a Cloud
The poet was travelling aimlessly just like a cloud over the hills and valleys of the mountainous Lake District in England. At that time, suddenly he came across a large number of golden daffodils beside the lake and under the trees. The flowers were ‘fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
The poet directly compares himself to a cloud, as he was wandering without aim, just like the clouds. This is an example of Simile (Simile is a figure of speech where two things are compared using ‘as’ or ‘like’. Read more about figures of speech).
He also uses the expressions like ‘crowd’ and ‘host’ to mean that he saw a large area covered with a whole lot of daffodils. In the last line, the poet personifies the flowers by saying that they were fluttering (like birds or butterflies) and dancing (like human beings). There is also an indication that it was a breezy day. So we get an overall idea of the landscape which includes the valleys and hills, the lake, the trees, the flowers beneath them and the breezy atmosphere.
Also Read
Here is another simile. The flowers are compared to the stars. They stretched in a continuous line just like the stars in a galaxy like the Milky Way. Moreover, the daffodils were shining (as they were golden in colour) and twinkling (as they were fluttering in the breeze) as the stars. This comparison with the stars may have a greater implication in indicating that the flowers are heavenly as the stars.
The flowers were visible as far as the poet could see along the shoreline of a bay. That is why he uses the phrase “never-ending line”. Here ‘continuous’ and ‘never-ending’ may also suggest that the flowers left an everlasting impact on him.
Wordsworth exaggerates the number of flowers by saying “Ten thousand saw I at a glance”. That indicates that the poet has never seen so many daffodils at once. So he is just overjoyed. This type of exaggeration is called hyperbole (exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally).
The poet also says that the daffodils were tossing their heads as if they were dancing in happiness. Actually, the poet was amazed at the beauty of the flowers. So, he found everything around him joyful. All these references of dancing and tossing heads are parts of his personification of the flowers.
The waves in the bay were dancing and looking gleeful at the atmosphere. But the flowers outshone the lively waves in their happiness. Having such cheerful companions like the daffodils, a poet like Wordsworth cannot help being happy. So he was gazing constantly at the flowers and enjoying their beauty. The word ‘gazed’ is used twice to indicate how moved or charmed the poet was. So he gazed at them for a long time, forgetting his surroundings.
At that time, he did not think much about the ‘wealth’ that the flowers had brought to him. The poet realized that later, maybe, after a few days. This ‘wealth’ is the happiness and the pleasant memory that he enjoyed for a long time since the day.
By starting this stanza with ‘For’, the poet continues his reasoning for saying that the flowers had brought him ‘wealth’. He clarifies why the sight of the flowers was so important in his life. Whenever he lies on his bed in a vacant or thoughtful mood, the daffodils flash upon his inner eye, i.e., his imagination. The daffodils have become an everlasting memory for the poet, whenever he is lonely. So, he calls it ‘a bliss of solitude’, a blessing of staying alone. And whenever he sees the flowers in his imagination, his heart fills with pleasure and his mind dances with the dancing daffodils.
This shows the poet’s intense feelings. The poet has been able to depict the landscape and express his mind so vividly in so simple language and form, that really draws one’s attention. And that is why this poem has been one of the most read and mentioned subjective poems in the history of English literature.
Daffodils Questions & Answers
While the poet was wondering, what did he see and where did he see them?
Answer: The poet saw a host of golden daffodils while he was wandering. He saw the daffodils growing beside the lake, beneath the trees.
How many daffodils does the poet say that he saw at a glance? Why does he say so?
Answer: The poet says that he saw ten thousand daffodils at a glance. He says so in order to highlight that the whole area along the lake was covered with blooming, uncountable daffodils.
Why does it appear that waves and the daffodils are competing?
Answer: When the poet saw the daffodils they appeared to be tossing their head in sprightly dance. The waves in the bay beside which the daffodils grew also appeared to be moving in a joyful dance. Moreover, the poet felt that the movement of the daffodils was better than that of the sparkling waves. Thus it appears as though the daffodils and the waves were competing.
What does the poet compare daffodils to? Why does he make such a comparison?
Answer: The poet compares the daffodils to the stars that shine and twinkle in the Milky Way. The poet makes such a comparison, because to him, the daffodils seemed to grow in never-ending lines like the stars in a galaxy. Also, the yellow daffodils seemed to shine and glow brightly like the stars twinkling in the sky.
Read & Answer The Questions
(a) What does ‘They’ refer to?
Answer: ‘They’ refers to the daffodils.
(b) What does the poet compare them to?
(c) Why does he do so?
Identify the figure of speech in the following lines:
Answer: Simile
Answer: Personification
(c) ‘Continuous as the stars that shine’
Answer: Alliteration
What does ‘jocund company’ mean?
Answer: ‘Jocund Company’ means a cheerful company. The joyful company of daffodils was the ultimate source of pleasure for the poet and he can feel nothing but happiness in that company.
Answer: The poet says that there were waves that were dancing in the lake but were no match for the waves of daffodils rippling in the breeze. The joyful dance of daffodils was way better than theirs.
Answer: The poet felt that one cannot be anything but happy in the company of the cheerful daffodils. The beautiful daffodils filled his heart with joy.
What is the ‘wealth’ the poet gained?
Answer: The wealth that the poet gained from the daffodils was the wealth of happiness that fills his heart when he thinks of the daffodils.
How do we know that ‘this’ show of the daffodils had a long-lasting effect on the poet?
Answer: The poet gives us a vivid description of the daffodils and the place where he saw them. The poet also mentions that when he saw the daffodils he didn’t realize the wealth of experience he had accumulated. However, later on, when he sat in a thoughtful mood the image of the daffodils flashed in his mind. This tells us that the show of the daffodils has had a long-lasting effect on the poet.
Answer: The poet often remembers the daffodils when he rests on his couch in a deep and pensive mood. The memory of the daffodils fills his heart with pleasure.
“They flash upon……………….the bliss of solitude.”
(a) Give the synonym of the word ‘bliss’.
Answer: pleasure/happiness
(b) What is referred to as ‘they’?
Answer: ‘They’ refers to the daffodils.
(c) When do they flash upon the poet’s inward eye?
Answer: The scene of the daffodils flash upon the poet’s inward eye when he lies on his couch in a pensive mood.
(d) Where did the poet see them?
Answer: The poet saw several daffodils fluttering in the breeze, under the trees, along the margin of a bay.
Answer: The speaker felt light-hearted and happy when he saw the daffodils.
Answer: The phrases ‘beside the lake’ and ‘beneath the trees’ convey what the speaker had observed. The reader understands that the speaker’s encounter with the daffodils was not imaginary, it happened in real life.
Answer: The speaker conveys the idea that there were lots of them by using the words ‘crowd’ and ‘host’.
Answer: The word ‘wandered’ conveys the delicate movement of a floating cloud. The speaker, much like the cloud is not guided by any sense of direction. The word ‘walked’ would not convey the same image as ‘wandered’. The word ‘wandered’ creates the impression of a carefree soul. ‘Wandered’ sounds more poetic than ‘walked’.
Answer: The sparkling waves reflecting the bright sunlight kept moving back and forth in the wind and appeared to be dancing, to the poet.
Answer: Though the waves gushed beautifully in the strong winds, they stood no comparison to the beauty of the sprightly tossing of the flowers that were stretched along the sides of the river.
Answer: The poet felt extremely happy and delighted in the cheerful company of the flowers.
.gif
)