Social Relevance of the Poem Daffodils
Wordsworth's poem ‘Daffodils’ is one of his most famous poems and a classic of English Romanticism. Written in 1804, it was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes. Later in 1815, Wordsworth revised it and it is this version that has survived to date. William Wordsworth is one of the most important poets of English literature. He was one of the eminent nature poets. He was born in the year 1770 in the English Lake District which is the most picturesque and scenic part of England. It is filled with beautiful lakes, hills, meadows and rivulets. He was surrounded by nature since his childhood. When he moved to France to finish his graduation, the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity of the ongoing French Revolution fired the imagination of the young poet.
The intense attention on the individual’s rights added greater emphasis to the significance of personal subjectivity and feeling. Romantic writers put a premium on ordinary, genuine, and sincere emotions. They loved speech spontaneity and detested affectation and artificiality.
The Romantic age was also an era of the Industrial Revolution, and the revolutionary ideas regarding individual rights frequently clashed with capitalists’ demands. Workers had few rights and worked in difficult conditions for long hours. Cities grew rapidly but the factory smoke and soot often made urban life grim and grim.
Romantic literature has also provided an escape from the material world of capitalism and industrialisation. The individual may turn to nature in order to find his or her true self. Nature has been seen as restorative, genuine and even divine. Nature, therefore, offered a transcendental experience involving an aspect of pantheism, the idea that the divine is a part of all.
The Structure of the Poem Daffodils
The poem is twenty-four lines long consisting of four stanzas. Each stanza is a sestet that is six lines long. It is formed with a quatrain (four lines), followed by a couplet (two lines) to form a sestet. The rhyme scheme follows the pattern of ABABCC that is: (A cloud in line one rhymes with the crowd in line three), ( B hills 2, daffodils 4) and (C trees 5, freeze 6).
Exercise
Describe the lasting impression of the daffodils on the poet.
Answer: The poet was captivated by the beauty of the daffodils which he saw near the trees and by the side of the river. The daffodils tossing their heads as if dancing to the tune of the breeze, and sparkling like the stars in the galaxy, in their vibrant golden colour, gave him great pleasure at that moment. But little did the poet realise that the delightful experience would never vanish from his mind, as whenever the poet was lonely or in a sad mood, the very flash of the golden daffodils in his mind made him happy again.
How does the mood of the poet change in the poem Daffodils?
Answer: In the beginning, the poet describes himself as a lonely cloud that floats over the hills and valleys, thus creating a melancholic feeling. This feeling soon gives way to one of joy in the presence of rows of daffodils. The poet, who is a lover of nature, is transmitted from a world of loneliness to one of long-lasting happiness at the sight of these golden-yellow flowers that provide much comfort to his lonely heart.
How does the poem make use of contrast in the poem Daffodils?
Answer: The poet was all alone and wandered aimlessly while the bright and lively daffodils stretched along the bay and were close together. He appeared to be in a melancholy mood. In contrast, the daffodils fluttered and danced, tossing their heads displaying exuberance in their movement.
After reading the poem, can you guess what a daffodil is?
Ans. The daffodil is a flower that is yellow and therefore comparable to gold in its colour. They usually grow near lakes. On seeing the yellow daffodils the poet perhaps recollects some golden memories that he cherishes in the lonely time. He, therefore, calls them ‘golden daffodils’.
Why does the poet compare the daffodils to stars?
Ans. The poet compares the daffodils to stars because the daffodils stretch in a never-ending line like the stars in the galaxy. Moreover, like stars, the daffodils shine as they are golden and also twinkle like the stars as they flutter due to the breeze. This is a clear indication that daffodils are heavenly stars.
What does the inward eye mean? What is it that flashes upon his eye? Do you think the poet is affected by it in any way? Give reasons.
Ans. The inward eye means visual imagination that takes the poet to the world of past recollection. It is something that can not be shared with other people. The golden daffodils which he has seen in the valley flash upon his inward eye. The memory of dancing and fluttering daffodils fills his heart with pleasure. It is like a spiritual vision that brings a feeling of joy. It is a blessing for the poet. That is why the poet calls the inward eye a ‘bliss of solitude.
What is the bliss of solitude according to the poet?
Answer: When the person is in solitude and there is nobody around him. He is all alone. He has the opportunity to think of nature. In the poem, the poet says that when he is either busy thinking or not thinking about anything he is reminded of the daffodils. He says that loneliness becomes lovely if he thinks about daffodils in his loneliness. When he remembers the daffodils he starts feeling happy, content and perfectly at peace with himself. This happens because of solitude.
Why does the poet stop seeing the daffodils?
Answer: The poet stops on seeing the daffodils because never before in his life had he seen such beautiful golden daffodils and that too in such a very large number. He is completely attracted to them.
What is the theme of this poem?
Answer: The healing and refreshing effect of Nature is the theme of this poem.
Extra Questions
Why has the poem called daffodils a crowd and how are they in contrast to his loneliness?
Ans. The poet compares himself to a cloud at the beginning of the poem because he is wandering about in a state of loneliness and detachment. Just like the clouds are moving overhead unattached to the scene below similarly the poet is walking all alone detached from the scenes of nature that surround him.
What do the words ‘crowd’ and ‘host’ suggest?
Ans). The words “crowd” and “host” suggest a multitude or a large number of daffodils. It suggests the suddenness with which the poet comes upon the daffodils where his first impression of the daffodils is their sheer numerousness.
How do daffodils resemble the stars?
Ans. The daffodils remind the poet of the stars both in their brightness and in numbers. They are golden in colour. Just as the stars shine along the curves of the heavens, similarly daffodils glow in along the bank of the lake.
Why is dance important in the poem?
Ans). Dance or movement is an important image in the poem symbolizing the idea of joy, harmony and life itself. Both the daffodils and the waves are dancing in joy. Everything in nature is rejoicing in the One Life that blows through them. They are rejoicing with the principle of joy and pleasure that is there in life itself. Unlike the daffodils and the waves it is only the poet who is solitary and lonely; the only creature in creation capable of feeling not at home and wonders “lonely as a cloud.”
Are the daffodils competing with the waves?
Ans). It appears that the daffodils are not only competing with but also outdoing the shimmering and dancing waves in the lake. The daffodils are tossing their heads about in a joyous and merry dance.
How did the poet actually feel as “gazed and gazed”?
Ans). As the poet gazed upon the scene of the daffodils beside the lake he was mesmerised by the sight. The moment he saw the daffodils his spirit soared and the mood of loneliness and detachment changed to one of joy and happiness.
What does “wealth” signify?
Ans. The sight of the daffodils becomes a treasure cove that lifts the poet’s spirit and rejuvenates him in times of loneliness and despair. Whenever the weariness, the fever and the fret of the world become too much for him he returns in his imagination to the joyous experience of that spring morning. It lends him the same joy that it gave him the first time. It becomes a permanent source of wealth or treasure to which he can turn in times of distress or need.
Why does the poet consider solitude to be blissful?
Ans. Solitude for Wordsworth was a blissful experience where he could recall from memory the experience of joy and ecstasy that the daffodils had imparted to him. In solitude, he could be rejuvenated by the sights and sounds of nature that he had stored in his memory. Solitude for him was not a lonely experience but an enriching one.
What is the poet’s state of mind at the beginning of the poem and what simile he has used to depict that?
Ans) At the beginning of the poem, the poet is loitering alone, aimlessly in a state of loneliness and detachment. He compares himself to a floating cloud above valleys and hills. The simile of the floating cloud suggests a sense of detachment. The image of a single cloud emphasizes the sense of detachment. It passes high over vales and hills thus suggesting the poet’s mood of estrangement and isolation.
How the poet has described the daffodils?
Ans. The poet compares the daffodils to the stars in brightness as well as in numbers. Growing along the curve of the lake, the daffodils remind him of the stars that shine along the curve of the heavens. They seem to be as numerous and unending as the stars above. Just as if one looks up at the night sky one can take in the immeasurability of the stars in one glance; similarly, Wordsworth sees hundreds and thousands of flowers in a single glance. But the flowers are not standing stationary. They are acted upon by the breeze, moving and tossing their heads in a dance of joy. The flowers are tossing their heads about, reverberating in joy.
What is the poet’s feeling when he sees a host of golden daffodils?
Ans. The poet felt ecstatic to see a host of golden daffodils by the side of the lake under the trees, shaking their head in a joyful dance. On seeing them, the poet’s imagination travelled to another world to find a comparison. He was reminded of the stars twinkling in the Milky Way at night.
How many of them does the poet see and what are they busy doing?
Ans. The poet sees a large flower bed of daffodils; around ten thousand of them rejoicing and dancing out of alacrity, in the breeze.
What did the poet see at a glance?
Ans. The poet says that he saw a large number of beautiful daffodils. He has been feeling lonely and alienated, but the thousands of daffodils end his feeling of loneliness. … Their swaying presence fills the speaker with joy as the bright daffodils seem to toss their heads gleefully in front of the sparkling lake.
Why has the poet described solitude as being blissful?
Ans. The poet has described solitude as being blissful because when the poet used to lie in a vacant or in a pensive mood, he recalls the daffodils which give him immense pleasure and makes his heart and soul fill with joy once again.
Where were the daffodils and what were they doing?
Ans. The daffodils were by the side of the lake under the trees. They were fluttering under in the breeze as if they were dancing like human beings expressing their joy and energy.
What is the bliss of solitude?
Ans. The ‘bliss of solitude’ means the blessings of loneliness. The poet William Wordsworth says that when he is alone in vacant and in pensive mood, i.e., when he is not doing anything particular, the daffodils which he had seen in the valley flash upon his inward eye and fill his heart with pleasure.
What does the poet mean by sprightly dance?
Ans. the meaning of sprightly dance in the poem daffodils is full of spirit and vitality, lively and brisk. The golden daffodils were happily tossing their head from one side to another with the help of the wind.
What is the message of the poem Daffodils?
Ans. The message that comes out of the poem is a reverence for the simplistic, and yet complex aspect of beauty that is in the world. Wordsworth’s reflection of the beauty in the natural world is one that envelops us, but one that can be easily forgotten.
Why are the daffodils called Golden?
Ans. The daffodil flowers are yellow and therefore comparable to gold in its colour. Moreover, the flowers lend the poet a kind of golden memory and bring him joy and happiness that he cherishes in his lonely moments. That is why the daffodils are called ‘golden daffodils’.
What does the phrase A host of golden daffodils mean?
Ans. The figure of speech used in the line ‘A host of Golden Daffodils’ is Personification. … In this line poet uses personification to describe the daffodils as a crowd of human beings who are just like the host or nature and welcome the lonely and sad guest in the lap of nature.
What is the main idea of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
Ans. Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” addresses themes such as the Romantic reverence for nature, how imagination and memory relate to the composition of poetry, and the impact of a childlike perspective on one’s experience.
Which Bliss is the poet referring to?
Ans. The bliss referred to is the bliss of solitude. When the poet is all alone, in a pensive mood, troubled by worldly problems, the memory of the dancing daffodils fills his heart with joy and he feels as though it is dancing with the daffodils. Poem: Daffodils by William Wordsworth.