I wondered lonely as a cloud – William Wordsworth 1802
Stanza 1 (fix this stanza ABABCC)
I wandered lonely as a cloud A
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
1. Where, when and what is the ‘I’ doing?
Stanza 2
2. Add the missing words: Twinkle line glance continuous margin sprightly
______________ as the stars that shine
And _________ on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending ___________
Along the ___________ of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a ___________,
Tossing their heads in __________ dance.
3.Has the mood changed? What proof do you have? Use a quote in your answer.
Stanza 3
The waves beside them danced; but _______
Out-did the sparkling waves in ____:
A poet could not but be ____,
In such a jocund ________:
I gazed—and gazed—but little ________
What wealth the show to me had ________:
4. Add the missing end-rhyme words: Glee they brought company thought gay
5.The poet writes about the ‘wealth’ the sight brought him. What might he mean?
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.
6. What is our ‘inward eye’? Is it a literal thing or a metaphor?
7. Look up ‘vacant’ and ‘pensive’ – what feelings do you associate with these words? What does
this tell you about the narrator? How might this relate to the Romantic critique of ‘the modern
world’?
Questions About Man and the Natural World - Answer these for homework – this is to encourage
you to think about the poem. Spend 20 minutes on this and stop.
1.
Do you think there’s something noble about the speaker's loneliness if it resembles nature’s
loneliness? Why would any part of nature be lonely?
2.
Does the speaker believe that the flowers make as good company as people?
3.
How much does the speaker’s mood depend on nature, and how much does his perception
of nature depend on his mood?
Questions About Spirituality.
1.
Are daffodils angels or at least angelic beings? What is the evidence for and against this
argument?
2.
What is the effect of all the shining and twinkling that occurs in the poem?
3.
How would you describe the relationship between the earth and the sky/air/atmosphere in
the poem? Which realm do the daffodils belong to?
Questions About Memory and the Past
1.
How would you explain the phrase, "but little thought what wealth to me had brought" (line
18)? What does the speaker mean by "wealth"?
2.
Does the speaker make a conscious effort to remember the daffodils, or do they come into
his head spontaneously? Is there a middle ground between these two options?
1.
Read this and write down one thing that strikes you as important:
The 19th century Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle coined the phrase "natural supernaturalism," which
has been used by later critics to describe how the Romantic poets, and especially Wordsworth,
viewed the natural world as a spiritual realm. The idea is that Heaven comes down to earth and is
viewed as part of the world. This poem illustrates the principle of natural supernaturalism. The
daffodils are like angels and twinkling stars, and the "bliss" of heaven occurs in speaker’s
imagination. He uses Christian ideas and images to make an ode to nature without any reference to
God.
This poem was written in England in 1807. What incredible changes in society were taking place
then and may have caused people to look to nature for comfort?