Name : Putu Mira Oktaviyanti Dewi

NIRM : 1712021008
Class : IIIA
Date : December 28, 2018
Final Project Introduction to Literature

Analysis of Daffodils by William Wordsworth

There are several genre of literature, one of them is poetry. According to Oxford
Dictionary, poetry is a collection of poems, poems in general. Poetry are arise from the “ Old
English Period “, one of the poetry in that period is The Pagan Poems ( Albert,Edward 1955
). Poetry at that time still in the form of simple poetry. At The Old English Period, the
meaning of poetry are difficult to understand because the words in every sentences are can
not be understood. The alphabetical arrangement are not yet perfected, it’s different with
nowadays.
Day by day poetry evolve over time, with various things that influence it. From The
Old English Period until the next periode, poetry are growing. From the simple words and
becomes words with hidden meaning. From the simple poetry, it becomes more varies theme.
The theme such as war, nature, politic, or romanticism. One of famous romanticism poets is
William Wordsworth with his poem, “ Daffodils”.
William Wordsworth is a poets from “The Return to Nature” period (Albert,Edward
1955). Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth in the Lake district, to be exact
in northwest England. Wordsworth has 4 siblings and he is the second child in that family.
The eldest child is Richard, he is a lawyer ; the second child is William ; the third is Dorothy
; the forth is John that died 1805 and the youngest is Christoper, a Master in Trinity
College,Cambridge ( Lane, S.M 2007 ).
Wordsworth’s father, John Wordsworth has an important role for Wordsworth’s
career journey. His father taught him poetry, he introduced the young William to the great
poetry of Milton and Shakespeare and Spenser ( Jamal Subhi Ismail Nafi’ 2015 ).
Wordsworth free to read at his father’s library in Cockermouth. Wordsworth was brought up
by his mother’s parents in Penrith, Cumberland. Not long after that, Wodrsworth’s mother
died in 1778, when he was 8.
After Wordsworth’s mother died, William was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School
in Lancashire. His displacement made him separated with his beloved sister, Dorothy for nine
years and Dorothy live in Yorkshire. He entered St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1787 when
he was 17 years old. That year is the first debut of Wordsworth ( Wiley,John 2014 ). He
published a sonnet in The European Magazine. In 1790 he impressed by the revolutionary
spirit and the principles of liberty and egalite. Wordsworth felt in love with Annete Vallon, a
French woman and illegitimate daughter named Anne Caroline. He graduated from ST.
John’s College in 1791 and got his B.A degree ( Lane, S.M 2007 ). After graduating, he
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and become close friend and often share about their poetic ideas.
They with others poet create more spontaneous and emotional poetry in this period. In 1802,
Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson. From that marriage, they have five children.

Wordsworth create so many famous and meaningful poetry. He compose some poetry
in university, An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches in the same year,1793 and Lyrical
Ballads in 1798. These 3 poetry show his genius and affected to Wordsworthian eye for
nature ( Albert,Edward 1955 ). During 1798-1799 Wordsworth create some of his finest
poems and appeared in the next year. All Wordsworth’s poems became fourteen books and
particulary describing about influence of nature and his emotions by seemingly unreal natural
objects, the blank verse is impassioned, wonder, inspiration by his exaltation, and awe (
Albert,Edward 1955 ).

One of his poetry with nature vibes is “ Daffodils ”, the poem first published in 1807
in Poems in Two Volumes and the revised was published in 1815. This poem was inspired by
an event that he came across with her sister, Dorothy in 1802.

Daffodils

By William Wordsworth ( 1815 )

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

Daffodils is a flower that has yellow or white color. The theme of this poem is nature
but also could show a happiness and memories about the poet. This poem is consist by four
quatrains, each quatrains consist by six lines and every line has eight syllables. The “
Daffodils “ is use iambic tetrameter rhytm pattern. The Daffodils use iambic tetrameter rhym
pattern as we can see at the word “ fluttering “ to be read as two syllables ( flut’ ‘ring )
instead of three ( Almiqdady, Abu-Melhim & Al-Sobh 2015 )

The first line has the same rhym with the third line, the second line has the same rhym
with the forth line and the fifth and the sixth line has the same rhym or end with a rhyming
couplet. Wordsworth explain how beauty “ Daffodils “ is. He use variaties words,
Wordsworth beatifully explain “ Daffodils “ trough his style. Wordsworth are very smart to
choose the words in the poem and that is very important to delive the meaning of the poem.
He try to make the reader understand about the meaning of the poem ( Almiqdady, Abu-
Melhim & Al-Sobh 2015 ).

A good poem often use poetic techniques to make it beautiful. In the book “
Linguistic Guide to English Poetry “ by Leech, he differentiates poetic language with
common language. Some poetic techniques like hyperbole, personification, simile, assonance
and imagery also used in the poem “ Daffodils “. Hyperbole is a condition when a the
meaning of a sentence is not the real meaning or the real meaning is not as extra as the
sentence. The second is personification, it is a condition when a sentence talk about
something ( not a human ) and it is like human being. The third is imagery, imagery means
the sentence explain about a action. The forth is simile, simile is a condition when a sentence
simile a thing with others. The last is assonance, assonance means when a sentence consist by
repeated words that has a same rhym.
For example, the use of hyperbole is applied in the sentence “ they stretched in a
never ending line...” . Wordsworth makes the readers think that the amount daffodils are
uncountable or infinity in the field, the field is full by the daffodils. At the personification, it
applied in the sentence “ tossing their heads in sprightly dance.... ” , Wordsworth makes the
reader think that Daffodils are really do a dance like human being or were living being. The
imagery is apllied in the sentence “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales
and hills... “, Wordsworth makes the reader imagine the condition of the sentence. The simile
are applied in the sentence “Continuous as the stars that shine....”, Wordsworth compare the
Daffodils with the stars in the milky way. The assonance is applied in the sentence
“Fluttering and dancing in the breeze..”, that sentence consist by two words repeated and it
has a same vowel sound.
The “ Daffodils “ by Wordworth use comma, full stop, colon and aposthrope as well.
Every words that used in this poem makes the poem beautiful. Wordsworth wants to make
the reader understand the meaning of the poem. He describes the beauty, charm and nature of
Daffodils. The “ Daffodils ” focusing the first three stanzas about experience at the lake and
the last stanza about the memory of the experiences.
When the readers read the “ Daffodils ‘ they will try to imagine how beauty Daffodils
is, they will imagine the condition of the daffodils. It because Wordsworth are very good in
describing the Daffodils. Readers will understand about the meaning of Daffodils, which are
the nature and the beauty of it.
References
1. Albert,E,. 1955. A History of English Literature. 3 ed. George G. Harrap & Co.LTD
2. Lane, S. M., 2007. How Wordsworth became Wordsworth: A Dialogic Study of a Poet
and his Audience. In : Victoria: University of Victoria [Online]
Available at
https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/183/Microsoft%20Word%20-
%20dissfinal.pdf;sequence=1
3. Almiqdady, Abu-Melhim & Al-Sobh., 2015. The Concept of Nature in the Poetry of
William Wordsworth and Robert Frost: A Comparative Study. In : Arab: Arab World
English Journal [Online]
Available at
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309160405_The_Concept_of_Nature_in_the
_Poetry_of_William_Wordsworth_and_Robert_Frost_A_Comparative_Study