CLASS 9th ICSE English Worksheet

DAFFODILS

➢ STANZA 1:
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.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. What was the poet doing? In what sense was he like a floating cloud?
3. Who has been referred to as ‘I’ in the first line of the extract?> where do you
think he was wandering?
4. What pleasant sight attracted his attention? What does he encounter and
where does he encounter them?
5. Why do you think the poet refers to the daffodils as golden?
6. Discuss the importance of the following lines with reference to the poem:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
7. Which figure of speech is used in the following lines? How many daffodils
do you think the poet saw? Give a reason for your answer.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
8. What figure of speech is used by the poet to describe the number of
daffodils?
9. Explain what the poet wants to convey in the following lines:
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
10. What does the poet say later in the poem about the effect of the sight of the
Daffodils?
11. Why does the poet compare himself to an object of nature and an object of
nature to a human being?
12. The poet later uses a smile to describe the beauty of the Daffodils. What is
that simile?
13. Why does he compare the daffodils to the stars?
➢ STANZA 2:
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.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. Why does the poet compare the Daffodils to the stars?
3. How the poet does described the Daffodils in the previous stanza?
4. Why does the poet feel happy?
5. How many did the poet see at a glance?
6. What were the Daffodils doing? Which literary device is used here?
7. “They stretch’d in never-ending line”. explain.
8. ‘Ten thousands saw I at a glance.’ Why does the poet use the number ‘ten
thousand’? what literary device is used here and why?
9. What was peculiar about the dance of the daffodils in the poem “Daffodils”?
10. When does the sight of the daffodils come to the poet’s mind later in the
poem? What does he get recollecting that sight of daffodils?
11. What is the milky way? Why is it referred to in the extract?
12. State how the technique of using exaggeration heightens the poetic effect in
the extract.
13. Briefly describe the musical quality of the extract5.
14. What is meant by the margin of the bay?
➢ STANZA 3:
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed'and gazed'but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. How did the daffodils outdo the waves?
3. Explain the following:
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company:
4. Why does the sight of the daffodils come to the poet’s mind later in the
poem?
5. Why cannot the poet but be gay?
6. What is meant by the jocund company? Which jocund company is the bpoet
referring to? Why does the poet find it jocund?
7. Which wealth is referred to by the poet? Explain how the wealth was
brought to the poet?
8. What is the mood of the poet in the above extract? Which lines tell you so?
Why is he in such a mood?
9. What does the repetition of the word ‘gaze’ show?
➢ STANZA 4:
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.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. What happens to the poet when he is sometime in a pensive mood?
3. What is the bliss of solitude referred to here?
4. What does he mean by the ‘inward eye’?
5. Which wealth is referred to by the poet?
6. Who are the ‘they’ referred to herein this stanza?
7. What makes the poet happy again?
8. What happens to the poet when he lies down on his couch in a pensive
mood?
9. Explain the transition from the poet’s pensive mood to his heart filled with
joy.
10. With reference to the last two lines of the extract, state the influence that
nature can have over an individual’s mind.
11. What message is conveyed by the poet?
12. Wordsworth says that poetry is ‘the overflow of feelings arising from
emotions recollected in tranquility’. In this context, state how the poem
shows the truth of his statement.