Daffodils

This poem records the experience of a walk the poet went for with his sister Dorothy near their
home in the Lake District. It is one of Wordsworth's most famous poems, in which he conveys his
love for nature. It was published in 1807.
TESTO:
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;

In this poem you find everything Wordsworth said, his view of nature and the effects it has in
men's life, is all included in this poem.
 The poem is divided in 4 stanzas
In the first stanza the poet describes his state of mind (I wonder lonely as a cloud): he is in a state
of ABSENTMINDEDNESS. He is in this state because he is walking. The setting is in the lake District,
it was a gorgeous setting (the area where he was born).
 He describes this block that he had some years before, the experience was then described
later, what is described is a PAST EXPERIENCE, is not something he experienced in a recent
time but very long before.
The poet at the begging was in a state of absentmindedness in fact he was walking but he wasn't
thinking about anything.
"When all at ones I saw a crowd" = Suddenly his attention is focused on this CROWD OF FLOWERS,
because in front of him he sees this big MULTITUDE OF FLOWERS and his absentmindedness
disappears and he concentrated on this crowd which is GOLD, he describes it as the colour gold.
He describes also the POSITION, they were beside the lake, it means that he was walking by the
lake and beside the lake there were the trees and they were “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”
= it means there was a little WIND that gently moves these flowers,
 these flowers appear PERSONIFIED, because normally people dance, and the flowers are
described like they were dancing, so they are personified.
FIRST COMPARISON
“Continuous as the stars that stars” = his attention is focused on the colour of these flowers, of the
brightness they have. there's a comparison with the stars, they are comparison to the stars that
shine and twinkle on the Milky way.
“They stretched in never-ending line” = they stretched because they are moved by the wind and
they stretched all together in this harmonious movement in never-ending line, it means that they
were such a big multitude that seems never-ending and that they accompanied the cost of the
lake along the margin of the bay.
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance” = Only with a GLANCE he could see ten thousand of these
flowers, he says a number but only to show us they were a MASS of flowers.
“Tossing their heads in sprightly dance”= this image give us the idea of these flowers as
PERSONIFIED PEOPLE, if we close our eyes we can see these flowers dancing and moved by the
wind
SECOND COMPARISON
Now there is another comparison, first with the stars of the milky way, now with THE WAVES OF
THE LAKE:
“The waves beside them danced” = because of course a lake is characterized by a certain stillness,
but as because there is a little wind also on the lake there are little waves, because the wind as
you know moves the water, so there is this dancing BOTH OF THE FLOWERS AND THE WAVES
 "But they outdid the sparkling waves in glee" = (they are referred to the Daffodils)
 Traduzione: I fiori superavano le onde in gaiezza.

CONTINUO DEL TESTO:

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.

Now he finished describing the flowers and REFERS TO HIMSELF.

“A poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company“= which is to say that this SHOW feels the
ATTITUDE OF THE POET, the poet cannot but be happy watching this wonderful view

"I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought" = which is to say when he had this experience he was
FOCUSED (gazed) but despite this he did not realise he was not aware what wealth how this show
had ENRICHED his soul

"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;" = when he goes back with his MEMORY to the SHOW of these
flowers and he lies at home, on his sofa “in vacant or in pensive mood”, it is a DIFFERENT STATE OF
MIND from the moment he was describing in the first stanza,
because it means that he is relaxed, and then, in that state of mind, this show goes back again to
his memory, this is the famous RECOLLECTION IN TRANQUILITY, so only in this state of mind: "in
vacant or in pensive mood" means that your mind IS RELAXED AND QUIET, and in that case
memory can go back to the past experience that in this case is the experience of the viewing of
these flowers.
 and then: " they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude" = it means the
eyes are the windows of the soul, moreover he exalts this state of loneliness which is
different from the first verse.
"I wandered lonely as a cloud": that one was a state of absentmindedness, this one is a state of
mind where memory and imagination came, and this gave to the poet a total HAPPINESS.
In fact he says:
" And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils" = it is as if when he had the
experience he was not fully aware of the beauty of NATURE , of what ACTION could nature have
on him, but only later THANKS TO THE USE OF IMAGINATION nature acts upon his SOUL and gives
him happiness.
it means that only IN CONTACT with nature men can recuperate feelings that had been lost and
this can happen thanks to the use of imagination. That's why the poet, who has this SPECIAL
SENSIBILITY is the person who can understand this FIRST from this poetry and then this experience
can be transmitted to READERS.

HE HOPES THAT READERS READING HIS POEM COULD HAVE THE SAME EXPERIENCE.

There is a reasoning in all this, and this is what Wordsworth wanted to achieve,
this pantheistic view of nature which is characterized by the DIVINE is the only way men has to
go back to a PRIMARY STATE, in contact with nature, man can get rid of what CIVILIZATION
has introduced in his life: the poet in this sense is also a TEACHER.