"I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" Analysis
By Jessica Stillman
Humanities 103
Project 2 option 2
The poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also known as "The Daffodils") by William Wordsworth, England's Poet Laureate in 1843, was originally written in 1807. The poem that we know and are familiar with today is the revised version published in 1815. It is, perhaps, one of the most famous poems that William Wordsworth has written. It is a lyrical poem written in remembrance of a walk taken, by a lake in Cumbria County, England, with his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, in 1802. Although William Wordsworth is listed as the author to the poem, he cannot lay full claim to all of the writing. Between 1807, when the poem was first written, and 1815, its second release, William Wordsworth made some much needed improvements, as well as adding an entire stanza in which his wife, Mary, helped him to write.
Wordsworth on Helvellyn
English: The title page of Poems in two volumes, t...
English: Rhyme scheme of the ballad I Wandered Lon...It is known to be an example of uncharacteristic writing for Wordsworth and shows lack of his usual spontaneity in writing.
The final version of the poem is comprised of 4 stanzas with 6 lines in each. This poem is written in a quatrain couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter. The original version was comprised of three stanzas, 6 lines each. It was also written in the quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme.
This poem, although simple, is an elegant and lovely poem depicting the author's wandering and his happenstance onto a field of daffodils by a lake. The memory pleases him so much so that, when he is lonely, he reflects on this moment and allows it to give him comfort. This feeling of euphoria with the memory sets the tone for this poem. It gives...