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Wandering Through Wordsworth?s PoemWilliam Wordsworth is a famous Romantic English poet known for his imagery. In his poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” we can see his use of imagery and emotion at its best. This also happens to be one of my favorite poems.
This poem’s plot is simple. We the reader are being taken along for a magical trip that the author is recounting. The speaker says that while wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys he encounters a field of daffodils beside a lake. These dancing, fluttering flowers caught the heart of our speaker. We can obviously see that this moment in his life has meant a great deal to him. He says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He also says whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure “and dances with the daffodils.”
The imagery Wordsworth uses is very powerful, making me feel like I too saw this wonderful sight of daffodils. He uses gentle words like the gentle flower that he is describing. He mentions that the daffodils are ?fluttering? ?dancing ? and ?twinkling,? such terms make the lines flow with a musical eloquence. He is able to make the daffodils come to life in a joyous movement making me feel like I am also swaying along with the flowers.
We can see that he holds daffodils and nature in high regard. This poem has a lot of nature images that you can practically see: the trees, the water, the stars, and the daffodils. His tone is merry and flows quickly and nicely. It’s like he is creating a painting not a poem. The images around him all seem to be in harmony, and, like he says, “dance” together. The extent of his joy is when he is among the daffodils, but the greater experience he seems to gain is the recollection of that moment of tranquility while with that “jocund company.”
The cloud he mentions is used not to represent loneliness, but rather, aloneness. Like they say, “there is a difference between begin lonely and being alone.” The poet thinks of himself as like the cloud in the sense of being free and being able to look at such beauty. He mentions the words “solitude” and “lonely,? yet he doesn’t sound depressed. Later I found that even though he claims to be alone while taking in this sublime sight, he really wasn?t alone–he was accompanied by his wife. Also he wasn?t alone while writing the poem, his wife, Dorothy, helped tweak the poem for him, and added the last few lines of the poem, which are one of my favorite lines of the poem:
?They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.?
In the last stanza, he mentions that he thinks about this place when he is alone and it makes him happy. He uses this cloud and his experience as a vehicle of escape. Overall this poem is very peaceful and gives off a feeling of tranquility. It is about a man confronting external nature and how with his imagination it can fulfill him. His creativity seems to be encouraged by the nature around him.
I often read this poem when I feel out of sorts and it is always able to relax me and make me feel like a wandering cloud. Thus, I also use this experience the speaker had as an escape.
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