| Title | : | I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1807 |
I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud Reviews
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I was googling "dancing daffodils" (I had my reasons) and found this fascinating poem by chance. It starts with a beautiful line, a familiar state of mind. I wandered lonely as a cloud - sheer brilliance. But the sense of familiarity and solace doesn't end there.
I wasn't particularly drawn to Wordsworth's work; I knew it was out there, I read few lines at some point, but wasn't eager to read further. However, after finding this poem, which speaks of a memory capable of transforming loneliness into blissful solitude, I'll definitely keep exploring his oeuvre, even if this poem is only a glimmer of light in the surrounding darkness - I seriously doubt it.For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Sep 14, 19
* Also on
my blog.
** Credit: Daffodils via
spillwords.com -
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. -
A eulogy to the restorative powers of Nature, Daffodils is perhaps the simplest and yet most celebrated lyric poem of the entire Wordsworth canon. Here the poet dips his mysticism, minimalism and spontaneity in his imagination, with Nature herself acting as the inspiration. Daffodils, which is a representative of Romanticism in English Literature, is one that can be called a “real poem”, which is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings arising from emotions recollected in tranquility. Romanticism talks about going back to nature as only nature has the narrative power to save people from the mechanical humdrum of city life. It shows that a poet is not a man in an ivory tower but a man among men, writing about all that interests and inspires mankind. And what inspires mankind more than nature? Not only is it a visual treat, but also a source of joy to the mind and the soul.
With each of the lines of the four six-line stanzas metered in an iambic tetrameter, the poem follows a quatrain-couplet style with the rhyming scheme ababcc.
This lyrical poem starts with the melancholic diction of
I wandered lonely as a cloud
which sets in the mood of seclusion that trails through the entire poem. The narrator much like a lonesome cloud that aimlessly drifts “high o’er vales and hills”, meanders down the mountains in the Lake District of England. It is after this that the poem shifts to a euphoric mood as he comes across
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
His depiction of the daffodils as “a crowd” is contrary to his previous portrayal of solitude. The discomfort that he feels in the human multitude (which in turn, leads to his solitude) is curiously absent when he is in the company of the infinities of nature. The use of the word “golden” is significant as it bestows a sense richness to a wild flower. The narrator seems to glide into a Utopian world, where these daffodils seem to be “fluttering and dancing” in the breeze (personification). Now the poet’s mind seems to soar higher and higher like a cloud as he looks at the daffodils.
On an autobiographical note, the loneliness that the poet talks about was a result of his brother’s death. It was on one such gloomy afternoon that he was strolling near a lake in Grasmere in England with his sister, Dorothy, when they chanced upon some daffodils close to a waterside. To him this scene seemed like a breath of fresh air in which his soul, a long-cramped scroll, seemed to flutter.
To him the flowers appeared to be
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way.
akin to innumerable shining golden stars that are studded in the Milky Way—the golden daffodils that were as ethereal as the stars . The flowers seemed to border “the margin of the bay” as far as he could see. That is why he says
They stretched in never-ending line
It could also imply the undying everglow that these flowers gave the narrator. He uses a hyperbole while describing the number of flowers that he saw, accounting it as “ten thousand”. This poetic exaggeration suggests that never before had he sighted so many daffodils all at once. At a single glance, he could see a myriad of daffodils “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” in the breeze, as if they were rejoicing in ecstasy. The joy that filled the narrator’s soul seemed to find expression in the way he perceived the swaying movement of the flowers.
It seemed as though the sparkling gleeful waves of the lake with the breeze drawing patterns on them were dancing in tandem with these flowers but their gleeful dance was in no way comparable to the euphoric and gaiety of the daffodils that
Surpassed the sparkling waves in glee
They seemed to be in a frenzy of delight. He asserts that
A Poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company
The cheerful companionship of the flowers lifted his spirits. The use of “gazed-and –gazed” shows that he was so mesmerized by the beautiful image of the dancing daffodils that he forgot all about his surrounding. However ordinary a daffodil may be in reality, the poet has painted them in such magical verses and blended in to such transcendental romanticism, that they leave an everlasting impression on the mind of the readers. Initially, the narrator fails to fathom what wealth the show of these lively flowers had endowed him with but goes on to answer it himself in the following stanza.
By beginning with “for” he presents the reason for his holding that chanced vision as a prized possession. He says that since that day, whenever he lies upon his couch in a vacant or pensive (meditative) mood, the vision flashes upon his “inward-eye”, i.e. his imagination. Not only had he captured the image of the golden flowers but also the feelings that they evoked in him. The daffodils seemed to have become his “bliss of solitude”, something that gives him the luxury to bask in his estrangement from the world and comforts him when he drowns in the imminent sorrows of life. Wordsworth was not without his share of loss. He had lost both of his parents by the age of thirteen. As if it was not enough loss for one, three of his children were taken away by the hand of Fate during his own lifetime. All these alienated him from the world and from life at large. But the moment he reminisces the daffodils his heart is filled with delight and seems to dance with the daffodils. This reminiscence is a source of hope and solace. He realizes that nature has gifted him something that money cannot buy—sublime happiness and a pleasant memory that he can cherish throughout his life; it imparts wisdom upon men in a way formal education never can. This is evocative of how modern man knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. People often forget that peace and joy are more worthy than money and material objects. Worldly pleasure is nothing in comparison with the delight that Nature gifts man.
Daffodils are a metaphor for the voice of Nature, scarcely audible except in seclusion, those magical moments when our spirit develops a visionary power and we return to the enchanted unity with nature we knew in childhood. They represent a living microcosm within the larger macrocosm of nature. Nature is the spirit of the universe—Nature has music for those who listen. -
I don't think I've ever read Wordsworth before and I enjoyed this one immensely. I could easily picture myself as the poet, in the bliss of solitude, laying on my couch, picturing a vast field of daffodils. This is another one that is easy to dive into and a great introduction for children. I'll have to pick up some more Wordsworth.
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No. Potentially as I do not wander lonely as a cloud, in fact, I crave solitude.
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Ah, yes. Who can blame England's poet laureate of the mid-Nineteenth century for giving in to the poetic rhapsodies that nature incites? Whose heart does not flutter at the sight of so much life before one's eyes? Every pretty butterfly that so joyfully whooshes before you from flower to flower, as if unable to decide which one is the most to her liking; every wild bird that mischievously zooms by as if he had just committed an innocent folly; every pretty duck that shakes his little tail like a girl dancer-- everything, every one of these sights fills my heart to the brim.
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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.
This poem gave me a such pleasant feeling and a sense of tranquility <3 -
I’m going to go dance with daffodils, BRB
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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. -
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a quintessential example of Romantic poetry, exemplifying many of the key characteristics of the literary movement.
The poem begins with the speaker wandering alone, like a cloud, suggesting a sense of isolation and introspection that is common in Romantic poetry. The image of the cloud also conveys a sense of freedom and transcendence, as the speaker is able to drift and roam without any constraints or limitations.
In the second stanza, the speaker comes across a field of daffodils, which is described in vivid and sensory detail. The daffodils are "tossing their heads" and "dancing" in the breeze, and the speaker is immediately struck by their beauty. This attention to sensory detail and the celebration of natural beauty are both key elements of Romanticism.
The third stanza is a reflection on the lasting impact of the daffodils on the speaker. Even when the speaker is no longer in the presence of the daffodils, they continue to bring him joy and happiness. This is a common theme in Romantic poetry, in which nature is seen as a source of solace and inspiration.
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a beautiful and evocative poem that captures the spirit of Romanticism, with its focus on solitude, introspection, and the beauty of nature.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. -
Beautiful, just beautiful
William Wordsworth, the poet, describes loneliness in the most beautiful way possible.
dancing dafodills💛🌻
the poem
Blog -
This was the stepping stone for me into falling in love with poetry :')
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I have arranged my takeaway thoughts on this beautiful piece of writing into a haiku:
"Some moments are gifts,
Still fleeting as any, dropped
By the hands of time." -
The Daffodils (Poem) by William Wordsworth
Beautifully honest!
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. -
Read poems to touch high of sense.
_
The lyric poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ or ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth is considered to be one of his best poems in modern times. The poet narrates a simple incident in which he got an opportunity to see a huge number of daffodils in a valley. -
One of my favourite poems of all time.
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❤️
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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.
"
I am so grateful for the recommendation that gave me the chance to read this <3 -
Beautifully written, enjoyed the personification of the daffodils and how he made the garden seem alive with his writing
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Simply beautiful!
This is real poetry!
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... -
I love how Wordsworth personifies the daffodils in the poem. This poem has a very happy, peaceful tone. My favorite lines are:
"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..." -
“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.” -
This poem, penned in 1802, is not a mere figment of fancy but based on actual observation and experience. Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy gives us an account of the occasion which inspired Wordsworth to write this poem. “When we were in the woods beyond Go barrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the waterside.”
The expansion of thought is rather down-to-earth. The poet was roaming without purpose, beside a lake, all alone. He was wandering without direction like a patch of cloud hovering in the sky over hills and valleys.
Out of the blue, he saw a great number of daffodils by the side of the lake, growing under the trees. They were of golden colour, and were waving and dancing in the air. They were incalculable in number, and they spread in a long line along the side of the lake.
They looked like inestimable stars shining relentlessly in the sky in the form of Milky Way.
At one glance the poet saw a huge number of them waving their heads, as if they were dancing out of joy. The waves of the lake were also dancing side by side with the daffodils. But their glittering dance was no match for the joy and gaiety of the flowers. The poet was seized with an ecstasy of delight. He felt that a poet who was sensitive -to natural beauty could not help feeling happy in the company of such gay and beautiful flowers.
He continued to look at them, little knowing then, what a great treasure he was collecting in his mind. In fact, that sight was being indelibly imprinted on his sensitive mind. In future, whenever he poet lay down on his couch, either in a vacant or a thoughtful mood, that beautiful scenery appeared before his mind’s eye.
In seclusion, when the mind is uninterrupted by outward things, old memories revive. Hence, when the memory of that sight appeared to the poet, he derived from it the same contentment which he had enjoyed when he had in fact seen it.
Typically Wordsworthian, this poem brings out Nature at its best and raises her to a height which few poets can reach. It shows how Wordsworth took unusual enchantment in the most ordinary and commonplace things.
Emotion recollected in serenity is the principal factor with Wordsworth, and his emotion is stirred. But he does not give expression to his sentiments then and there, nor does the emotion absolutely pass away from him the moment he withdraws from the scene.
The passions are neither transitory nor provisional. They are stored in the mind of the poet and become undying and ceaseless. They are recollected in stillness which fill the mind of the poet with pleasure.
The poet derives the same pleasure from his thoughts about the daffodils when he actually saw them
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
The words and the phrases used are simple but extremely consequential. The numerousness of the daffodils is expressed by the words ‘a crowd’, ‘a host’, ‘continuous as the stars’, ‘they stretched in never ending line’, ‘ten thousand saw lat a glance’.
Nature infuses the entire structure of the poem. The poet is wandering alone like a cloud that floats on high over hills and dales. What is most common has been completely blended with something condescending and transcendental.
To a casual reader and the scholar alike, this poem elevates him to an esoteric plane!! -
I had a beautiful chance to know this Poet Wordsowrth because of Dady Long legs :)
beautiful peom :)
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.
– William Wordsworth (1802)
https://youtu.be/d5-KMRUxyug
تجولت وحيدا كسحابة
تطفو على الوديان والتلال العالية ،
عندما رأيت في الحال حشدًا
من أزهار النرجس الذهبية ؛
بجانب البحيرة ، تحت الأشجار ،
ترفرف وترقص في النسيم.
مستمرون كالنجوم التي تتألق
وتتألق على درب التبانة ،
تمتد في خط لا ينتهي على
طول حافة الخليج:
عشرة آلاف رأيت
بنظرة واحدة ، وهم يرمون رؤوسهم في رقصة مرحة.
رقصت الأمواج بجانبهم. لكنهم تجاوزوا
الأمواج البراقة في ابتهاج:
الشاعر لا يمكن إلا أن يكون مثليًا ،
في مثل هذه الشركة المزاح:
حدقت - وحدقت - لكن لم أفكر كثيرًا في
الثروة التي جلبها لي العرض:
غالبًا ، عندما كنت على أريكتي أنا أكذب
في مزاج شاغر أو متأمل ، يلمعون
تلك العين الداخلية
التي هي نعمة العزلة ؛
ثم يمتلئ قلبي بسرور ،
ويرقص مع أزهار النرجس البري.
- ويليام وردزورث (1802) -
FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG
http://politicsbooksandme.com/2022/02...
The writing style here is bad. And somehow it has the generic writing style which is in every bad poems.
The plot here is also bad. It wasn’t that unique because there were poems which had the same or almost the same plot as this one has. -
أهيم وحيدًا كسحابة هي من أكثر القصائد الإنجليزية عذوبة ورقّة بالنسبة لي. كلما لفّتني الوحدة أتذكر حقل النرجس الذهبي يتراقص من حولي فتغدو ظلمتي ووحدتي حقل شاسع ومشمس!
لَكَم كانت نشوتي وبهجتي عندما وجدت القصيدة بنسختها المصوّرة هذه!
لطالما رأيت عذوبة خاصة بزهر النرجس البري ولكنه أصبح أَحَبّ إلى قلبي بعد هذه القصيدة. -
This is what I chose when we had to recite poetry in grade school back in the 70s.It was my
favorite poem as a child and it is my favorite now.It is simple but contains so much feeling.The most beautiful poem ever♥️
