POEM 1

DAFFODILS
 99 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

Pre-reading

1. Do you like flowers?

If so, what flowers do you like?
If not, why?

2. In Myanmar, what do people use flowers for?

 100 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

DAFFODILS

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.
William Wordsworth
 101 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. What did the poet compare himself to in the first stanza?
The poet compared himself to a cloud in the first stanza.

2. What did the poet suddenly see?

The poet suddenly saw a host of golden daffodils.

3. What colour were the daffodils?

The daffodils were yellow or golden in colour.

4. Where were the daffodils?

The daffodils were beside the lake and beneath the trees.
 102 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

5. Which words suggest ‘a great number of daffodils’?

The words ‘crowd’ and ‘host’ suggest ‘ a great number of daffodils.

6. What caused the fluttering and dancing moment of the daffodils?

The breeze caused the fluttering and dancing moment of the daffodils.

7. To describe the movements of the daffodils what words did the poet use?
To describe the movements of the daffodils, the poet used the words
‘fluttering’, ‘dancing’ and ‘tossing’.
 103 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

8. Is the second stanza about the stars in the Milky Way or is it about the great
number of daffodils that the poet saw? Which line in the stanza makes you
think so?
The second stanza is about the great number of daffodils that the poet saw.
The last two lines make me think so.

9. Think of a flower you like and compose a three-line verse about it,
substituting the 4th, 5th and 6th lines of the first stanza of the poem
‘Daffodils’.
Sample answer:
A host of beautiful lilies;
Beside the fence, among other flowers and trees,
Swaying and dancing in the rain.
 104 GRADE 10 ENGLISH

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