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; 5 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 10 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: 15 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: 20 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 And dances with the daffodils.

Vagavo solo come una nuvola che fluttua in alto su valli e colline quando d'un tratto vidi una folla un esercito di dorate giunchiglie; presso il lago, sotto gli alberi ondeggianti e danzanti nel vento. Continue come stelle che splendono e brillano nella Via Lattea si stendevano in linea infinita lungo il margine di una baia Diecimila ne vidi in uno sguardo scuotere il capo in vivace danza. Le onde l accanto danzavano; ma queste superavano in gaiezza le onde splendenti: Un poeta non pu che gioire in s gioconda compagnia: Guardavo - guardavo - ma non pensavo alla ricchezza che tal vista mi aveva dato: Poich spesso, quando giaccio sul sof d'umore pensoso o indolente esse brillano su quell'occhio interiore che la gioia della solitudine ed ecco, il mio cuore di gioia si empie e danza insieme alle giunchiglie

fills,

I wandered lonely as a cloud (Daffodils) Wordsworth The poem was composed in 1804 and was inspired by the sight of a field full of golden daffodils waving in the wind. The key of the poem is joy, as we can see from the many words which express pleasure and delight: in fact the daffodils are golden, waving in a sprightly dance and outdoing the waves in glee: they provide a jocund company and the sight of them fills the poets heart with pleasure. The flowers are set in a natural environment made up of land, air and water. The words related to the three elements are: for land: wales, hills, tree. For air: cloud, breeze, stars, milky way. For water: lake, bay, waves. All nature appears wonderfully alive and happy in fact the cloud floats on high; the stars shine and twinkle, the waves dance and sparkle in glee. The daffodils, too, are not static like in a painting, but alive with motion. They are in fact fluttering and dancing in the breeze, and tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The sight of the daffodils amazes the poet at first because of their great number in fact they a crowd, continuous, ten thousand, host, never ending-line. Yet Wordsworth is not interested in the flowers as such, but in the way they affect him; that is from inner to deter worlds and vice versa. The sight of the flowers brings the poet delight but he doesnt realize that at the moment but only later, when memory brings back the scene. It is clear that the daffodils have a metaphorical meaning. They may represent the voice of nature, which is scarcely

audible except in solitude, the magic moment when our spirit develops a visionary power and we return to the enchanted unity with nature we knew in childhood; they may represent a living microcosm within the larger macrocosm of nature. Describing the daffodils the poet mentions only one colour: golden; but the whole poem implicitly suggest a wealth of colours: white = clouds; green = hills, vales, trees; blue = lake; silver = star; silver-white = milky way. In stanza 4 the poet suggests the perfect state of mind we should be in to hear the voice of nature; he says we should be in a sort of inner emptiness almost like that of the mystics when they enter into communion with God. This state of mind favours the poets inner perception, which he calls in ward eye. Tanks to this inner perception the poets physical loneliness turns into a moment of ecstasy, which to calls bliss of solitude. Brief as it is, the poem presents a perfect structure. It is divided into four stanzas which correspond to the various moods of the poet. Stanza 1_ Setting and shock at the sight Stanza 2_ Description of the flowers Stanza 3_ Relationship between the flowers and the poet Stanza 4_ Emotion recollected in tranquillity The devices used by Wordsworth in this poem are. Similes: lonely as a cloud; continuous as stars. Personification: crowd, host, (the daffodils) fluttering and dancing (line 6),(the daffodils) tossing their heads (line12);(the waves) dance (line 13) company (line 16), (my heart) dances (line 24). The personification of the flowers make them alive as if endowed with a life and a soul of their own repetition: gazed (line 17). It conveys the impression of the poet breathless when faced with the beauty of nature and unable to remove his eyes from it. Analysis "I wandered lonely as a cloud" takes place in the Lake District of Northern England. The area is famous for its hundreds of lakes, gorgeous expanses of springtime daffodils, and for being home to the "Lakeland Poets": William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and Robert Southey. This poem, obviously inspired by Wordsworth's stomping grounds, is well-loved because of its simple yet beautiful rhythms and rhymes, and its rather sentimental topic. The poem consists of four six-line stanzas, each of which follow an ababcc rhyme scheme and are written in iambic tetrameter, giving the poem a subtle back-and-forth motion that recalls swaying daffodils. By comparing himself to a cloud in the first line of the poem, the speaker signifies his close identification with the nature that surrounds him. He also demonstrates this connection by personifying the daffodils several times, even calling them a "crowd" as if they are a group of people. The idea of remembering the beauty of nature even when not in its presence appears in several of Wordsworth's later poems, including "Tintern Abbey," "Ode; Intimations of Immortality," and "The Solitary Reaper." Even though the speaker is unable to appreciate the memory he is creating as he stands in the field, he later realizes the worth that it takes on in sad and lonely moments.
Summary, Stanza 1 While wandering like a cloud, the speaker happens upon daffodils fluttering in a breeze on the shore of a lake, beneath trees. Daffodils are plants in the lily family with yellow flowers and a crown shaped like a trumpet. Summary, Stanza 2 The daffodils stretch all along the shore. Because there are so many of them, they remind the speaker of the Milky Way, the galaxy that scientists say contains about one trillion stars, including the sun. The speaker humanizes the daffodils when he says they are engaging in a dance. Summary, Stanza 3 In their gleeful fluttering and dancing, the daffodils outdo the rippling waves of the lake. But the poet does not at this moment fully appreciate the happy sight before him. In the last line of the stanza, Wordsworth uses anastrophe,

writing the show to me had brought instead of the show brought to me . Anastrophe is an inversion of the normal word order. Summary, Stanza 4 Not until the poet later muses about what he saw does he fully appreciate the cheerful sight of the dancing daffodils. Wordsworth again uses anastrophe, writing when on my couch I lie and my heart with pleasure fills. Examples of Figures of Speech Stanza 1 Alliteration: lonely as a cloud (line 1). Simile: Comparison (using as) of the speaker's solitariness to that of a cloud (line 1). Personification: Comparison of the cloud to a lonely human. (line 1) Alliteration: high o'er vales and Hills (line 2). Alliteration: When all at once (line 3). (Note that the w and o have the same consonant sound.) Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to a crowd of people (lines 3-4). Alliteration: golden Daffodils (line 4). Alliteration: Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, Personification/Metaphor: Comparison of daffodils to dancing humans (lines 4, 6). Structure and Rhyme Scheme The poem contains four stanzas of six lines each. In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. The stanza then ends with a rhyming couplet. Wordsworth unifies the content of the poem by focusing the first three stanzas on the experience at the lake and the last stanza on the memory of that experience. Meter The lines in the poem are in iambic tetrameter, as demonstrated in the third stanza: ..........1..............2..................3...................4 The WAVES.|.be SIDE.|.them DANCED;.|.but THEY ......1................2..................3................4 Out-DID.|.the SPARK.|.ling WAVES.|.in GLEE: ....1.............2.............3.............4 A PO.|.et COULD.|.not BUT.|.be GAY ......1.............2...........3............4 In SUCH.|.a JOC.|.und COM.|.pa NY: .......1................2..................3.................4 I GAZED.|.and GAZED.|.but LIT.|.tle THOUGHT ...........1....................2............3...............4 What WEALTH.|.the SHOW.|.to ME.|.had BROUGHT: In the first stanza, line 6 appears to veer from the metrical format. However, Wordsworth likely intended fluttering to be read as two syllables (flut' 'RING) instead of three so that the line maintains iambic tetrameter.

Themes 1. Nature' s beauty uplifts the human spirit. Lines 15, 23, and 24 specifically refer to this theme. 2. People sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines. Lines 17 and 18 suggest this theme. 3. Nature thrives unattended. The daffodils proliferate in splendor along the shore of the lake without the need for human attention.