‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’

(William Wordsworth)

ABSTRACT
This presentation aims to analyze “ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth from the
perspective of stylistic analysis. The analysis is made under the aspects of Stylistic Features,
Graphological,Syntactical, Semantical, and Phonological levels.
Moreover, the tone, theme, purpose, theory, text structure and the moral of the poem are explained briefly. This
research is helpful to analyze the structure and style of William Wordsworth’s poem.

INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHOR

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth in the Lake District. He went to the same school,
the Cockermouth Free School, as Fletcher Christian, the man who would lead the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.
Christian was six years senior to Wordsworth.

‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ is one of the best-loved poems of the fountainhead of romanticism William
Wordsworth. This poem features how the spontaneous emotions of the poet’s heart sparked by the energetic
dance of daffodils help him pen down this sweet little piece. On 15 April 1802, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy
came across a host of daffodils around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District. This event was the inspiration behind
the composition of Wordsworth’s lyric poem.

‘Daffodils’ or ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ has been dissected methodically for illustrating the poet’s mood, the
surrounding location, the allegorical meanings, and the beauty of nature in full motion. The poet’s love and
proximity with nature have inspired and moved generations after generations of poetry lovers and young minds.

Wordsworth died on 23 April 1850 – just over a fortnight after his eightieth birthday, and on the anniversary of
Shakespeare’s death some 234 years before. For the last seven years of his life he was Poet Laureate of the United
Kingdom, though he wrote no official verses during this time.

SUMMARY
The speaker, likely William Wordsworth himself, is wandering down the hills and valley when he stumbled upon a
beautiful field of daffodils. The speaker is transfixed by the daffodils seemingly waving, fluttering, and dancing
along the waterside. Albeit, the lake’s waves moved as fervently, but the beauty of daffodils outdid with flying
colors. The poet feels immensely gleeful and chirpy at this mesmerizing natural sight. Amongst the company of
flowers, he remains transfixed at those daffodils wavering with full vigor. Oblivious to the poet is the fact that this
wondrous scenery of daffodils brings the poet immense blithe and joy when he’s in a tense mood or perplexed for
that matter. His heart breaths a new life and gives him exponential happiness at sight worth a thousand words.
MEANING
Though the poem’s title hints at a cloud, it is not about it. Instead, it is about a group of golden daffodils dancing
beside the lake and beneath the trees. Wordsworth’s poetic persona, at some point, visited that spot, and he is
describing how he felt having the sight of those beautiful flowers. The poet metaphorically compares him to a
cloud for describing his thoughtless mental state on that day. Like a cloud, he was wandering in the valley
aimlessly. The sudden spark that the daffodils gave to his creative spirit is expressed in this poem.

GENRE
ROMANTIC LITERATURE

THEMES
 The Beneficial Influence of Nature. Throughout Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the ultimate good
influence on the human mind. …
 The Power of the Human Mind. Wordsworth praised the power of the human mind. …
 The Splendor of Childhood. In Wordsworth’s poetry, childhood is a magical, magnificent time of
innocence.

WRITING STYLE
DIDACTIC, almost INSTRUCTIONAL style.

PURPOSE
Wordsworth wrote this poem to capture the feeling that came over him in that moment.

MORAL
“I wandered lonely as a Cloud” is a poem that just makes you feel good about life. It says that even when you are
by yourself and lonely and missing your friends, you can use your imagination to fine new friends in the world
around you.

TEXT STRUCTURE
The poem is composed of four stanzas of six lines each. It is an adherent to the quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme, A-
B-A-B-C-C. Every line conforms to iambic tetrameter. The poem ‘Daffodils’ works within the a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme
scheme as it uses consistent rhyming to invoke nature at each stanza’s end. Moreover, it helps in creating imagery
skillfully as the poet originally intended. The poem flows akin to a planned song in a rhythmic structure.
Consonance and alliteration are used to create rhymes.

TONE
The tone of this poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, is emotive, hyperbolic, expressive, and thoughtful. In the
first stanza, the speaker’s tone helps readers understand how he felt after seeing the daffodils on a specific event.
As the poem progresses, Wordsworth intensifies it. Thus it appears hyperbolic. In the last stanza, he chooses a
thoughtful tone for describing the impact of the scene on his mind. The tone also follows the mood of the poem.
Throughout the text, the poet maintains a calm and joyous mood. It is like the breeze that made the daffodils
dance on that day. While going through the poem, readers can feel this relaxing mood.
 STYLISTICS ANALYSIS
A. STYLISTICS FEATURES
 Major Characters
The only human character in the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William
Wordsworth is the speaker, who is an alter-ego of the poet himself. Through personification,
the daffodils themselves and the waves of the lake become characters in the poem.

 Characterization/ Narration type or Descriptive

type
The speaker characterizes their “wandering” as “lonely,” and specifically akin to the
loneliness of “a cloud.” In reality, loneliness is a human emotion and, of course, not one felt
by clouds. This personification helps to link the human speaker with the natural environment
in which they walk.

 Theme of the Poem

The major theme of this poem is nature and human involvement in natural beauty. It also
points to another theme – the impact of nature on a human. The poem encompasses the
thoughts of an adult, why he meanders over the hills and how this sudden occurrence is a
blessing in his solitude. The never-ending row of those enchanting flowers impresses him so
much that he compares them with the sparkling stars of the galaxy. He is captivated by the
startling view of nature. This everlasting impact, triggered by nature, often serves as a
delight for the poet, when he feels low or in loneliness.

B. LEXICAL ANALYSIS
The poem is realized by 4 clause complexes consisting of 4 main clauses and 16 sub-clauses. Out of 16
sub-clauses, there are 8 clauses of hypotactic elaboration, 5 clauses of paratactic extension, 2 clauses
of hypotactic enhancement. And 1 clause of hypotactic projection.
The lines contain 8 syllables each with 4 accented ones, thus creating iambic tetrameter. When it
comes to the kind of rhyme used in the poem, one can see that both assonance and consonance can
be found.

C. PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
• Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of poetry such
as the use of /g/ sound in, “I gazed and gazed” and the use of /w/ sound in, “What wealth
the show to me had brought.”

D. GRAPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
 Comma
 A host, of golden daffodils; (line4)
 Hyphen
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought (stanza 3
line 5)
 Colon
In such a jocund company: (stanza 3 line4)

E. SEMANTIC LEVEL
 Semantic analysis (City life vs. Nature) Wordsworth try to
explain the difference between city life and nature (rural). Through the lines, the shift of the
poet feelings is very clear. Firstly, he complains about the corrupted world, which lacks
cooperation and harmony, so he wanders lonely and hopeless. He prefers to get away from
other people as if being with them brings him nothing but more sadness and loneliness.
However, seeing the golden daffodils cheered him up because they welcomed him. “A host,
of golden daffodils” shows that the poet ran away from city life and took nature as a shelter
to protect him from the world’s corruption.

F. FIGURES OF SPEECH
 Imagery
Wordsworth makes use of imagery figuratively to display his feelings and emotions after
encountering the daffodils. Firstly, the image of the cloud describes the poet’s mental state,
and the images that appear after that vividly portray the flowers. These images, in most
cases, are visual, and some have auditory effects (For example, “Fluttering and dancing in
the breeze.”) associated with them.

 Symbolism
being LONELY and THOUGHTLESS

 Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /a/ in “Ten
thousand I saw at a glance” and /e/ sound in “They stretched in never-ending.

 Simile
Simile is a device used to compare one object to another to help
readers understand or to clarify the meanings using ‘as’ or ‘like’.
 There are two similes used in this poem.
1. “I wandered lonely as a cloud.”
He compares his loneliness with a single cloud. The second is used in the opening line of the
second stanza,
2. “Continues as the stars that shine.”
Here Wordsworth compares the endless row of daffodils with countless stars.

 Personification
Personification is to attribute human characteristics to lifeless
objects.
The poet has personified “daffodils” in the third line of the poem such as, “When all at
once I saw a crowd.” The crowd shows the number of daffodils.
The second example of personification is used in the second stanza as, “Tossing their
heads and sprightly dance.” It shows that the Daffodils are humans that can dance.
The third example is in the third stanza such as, “In a jocund company.” Here he
considered the daffodils as his buoyant company.

 Consonance
Is the repetition of consonant sounds such as the sound of /t/ in “what wealth the show
me had brought” and /n/ sound in “in vacant or in pensive.”

 Metaphor
Wordsworth has used one metaphor in this poem in the last stanza as “They flash upon
that inward eye.” Here “inward eye” represents the sweet memory of
daffodils.ought”lelism.