“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” William Wordsworth

1. By: Dominic Piedmont “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”William Wordsworth

2. Background on Wordsworth • Born in 1770, and wrote the poem in 1804 • Mother died when he was 8 and father died later • Attended Hawkshead Grammar School • Two children died young, third died later in life • Credited with starting Romantic Period • Close to his sister

3. Explication • Who is the speaker ? • What era was it written in? • Themes of the poem.

4. Personal Interpretation • Simple pleasures • “And [my heart] dances with the daffodils” • “A poet could not but be gay” • Rebirth and Hope • Daffodils representative of this • Depression • “I wandered lonely as a cloud” • “In vacant or in pensive mood”

5. Literary Terms: 1st stanza • 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.

6. Literary Terms: 1st stanza • I wandered lonely as a cloud  simile 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.

7. Literary Terms: 1st stanza • I wandered lonely as a cloud  simile 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.  End stopped line

8. Literary Terms: 1st stanza • I wandered lonely as a cloud  simile 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.  End stopped line Enjambment

9. Literary Terms: 1st stanza • I wandered lonely as a cloud  simile 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.  End stopped line Enjambment Personification

10. Literary Terms: 2nd stanza • Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.  End Stopped Line

11. Literary Terms: 2nd stanza • Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.  End Stopped Line Couplet

12. Literary Terms: 2nd stanza • Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.  End Stopped Line Enjambment Couplet

13. Literary Terms: 2nd stanza • Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.  End Stopped Line Enjambment Couplet

14. Literary Terms: 3rd Stanza • The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed--and gazed--but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

15. Literary Terms: 3rd Stanza • The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed--and gazed--but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought: Caesura

16. Literary Terms: 3rd Stanza Personification • The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed--and gazed--but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought: Caesura

17. Literary Terms: 4th Stanza • For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils. 

18. Literary Terms: 4th Stanza • For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;  ParadoxAnd then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils. 

19. Critical analysis •  “ “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" dramatizes an experience of the sublime” (Brennan). • “… the flowers simply bring psychological ease: The lonely poet sees the "jocund company" and becomes happy” (Joplin). •  “… the event moves through a transposition into a spiritual experience. For one thing, the intent gazing signals a meditative moment akin to spiritual activity: As he drinks in nature's beauty; the poet attains an elevated state of mind” (Joplin). • “Wordsworth was known to have suffered a sudden and deep depression” (Liu).

20. Work Cited • Google Images • Brennan, Matthew C. "Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as A Cloud." The Explicator 57.3 (1999): 140-3. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. • Joplin, David. "Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." The Explicator 56.2 (1998): 67-70. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. • Liu, Yu. "Crisis and Recovery: The Wordsworthian Poetics and Politics." Papers on Language & Literature 39.1 (2000): 19+. Literature Resources. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. • Rose, Phyllis. "Dances with Daffodils." The Atlantic Monthly 2002: 49-51. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2013 . • "William Wordsworth." - Poets.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/296>.