Analysis of William Wordsworth’s Poem Daffodils
DAFFODILS w.w (1807)
Loneliness-Imagination and memory-Nature’s beauty uplifts the human spirit. Lines 15, 23, and 24 specifically refer to this theme.
The speaker is the poet himself. His sister wrote in her diary the journey to Lake Ullswater which was Wordsworth’s inspirational landscape. The poem describes how when the speaker is alone he realizes the landscape that surrounds him. He goes on to say that the daffodils are like shining stars and how they all move in the breeze of the wind as if they were dancing. In the next stanza he observes how the waves of the lake also move with the breeze but that nothing can be compared with the beauty of the daffodils and proceeds by describing how he feels before such a landscape. Finally, he describes how that image has remained in his memory and how, each time he remembers it, he feels the same happiness that he felt then.
Poetic features
Form: Four stanzas that follow the rhyme scheme ABABCC, the couplets create a closure at the end of each stanza and musicality. Each stanza focuses on an element of nature: the first en earth, the second in the sky and the third in the water.
Metre: Iambic tetrameter (X/) throughout the whole poem which provides calm and serenity and also allows the poet to express his emotions naturally. It is easy to follow for the reader which was the main purpose of the poetàsimple language.
- Figurative language: The word “wandered” suggests that he is lost and the simile and a personification “as a cloud”, implies that he may be lost in life or in his thought, because to wander is to walk without a direction. The tenor is the “I”, the vehicle the “cloud” and the ground is that he is as lonely as a cloud in a sky, but it can also mean that the poet is standing in a high point, so he sees the landscape from above, just like a cloud would.
Lines 3-4 are also a personification and a metaphor. He is comparing the daffodils to a group of peopleà*“host”. Line 6 is a personification/metaphor too when he is bringing the daffodils to life and this connects with the previous lines. Somehow the daffodils are dancing and the word “fluttering”, flying like angels under the trees.
Line 7, simile. The tenor are the plants, the vehicle “stars that shine” in the milky way and the ground is that the daffodils are like stars in the valleyàColour of the stars=yellow and emphasizes this idea of divinity. The milky way could refer to heaven. Hyperboles in next lines. “never-ending line” and” ten thousand” just like the stars don’t have and end. Line 12 is a personification and image. The daffodils are dancing and the word “sprightly” could have two interpretations. First, means happy but a sprite is a supernatural creature=angels.
Opening the third stanza there is also a personification/image. The image of the waves dancing means that the breeze is moving the water. Later he introduces his feelings. The poet describing could be himself since the journey to the like was described in his sister Dorothy’s diaries. He speaks about how delighted he is about the landscape and the happiness he feels and the last verse of this stanza is a metaphor of the spiritual wealth. The repetition of “gazed” emphasizes the idea he wasn’t really aware of the beautiful feelings the landscape transmitted to him in the moment he was seeing it (“but little thought”).
It is in the final stanza when he is in his room alone again when he really appreciates the nature. The contrast between “vacant” and “pensive” insists in the fact that he can’t take the landscape of his mind. Line 21 is a metaphor that suggests a spiritual vision* (religious connotation), almost like if he recreates the landscape. Wherever he is alone, this heavenly image appears in his mind and this makes him happy (“heart dances” personification) and any kind of thought disappearsàNature affects him.
- Sound patterns: alliteration of the sound’s “h”, “b” represents the sound of the breeze itself.
- Repetition: the word dance is repeated in all the stanzas, but in each one it has a different meaning. in the first and second, the plants move through the air, in the third creates harmony between the waves and the daffodils and in the last, the poet joins that harmony and happiness that they give off.
- Enjambment, line 13-14, creates a very natural poem, he wants to express the idea.
Find intertextual allusions
The word “host” refers to the army of angels mentioned both in the Bible. He is comparing the daffodils to a group of angles because they are lined up like an army. The golden colour gives it more angelical and divine air. *Inward eye To conclude, it is important to notice that while in the first three stanzas he focuses in the landscape, is about being spontaneous and letting the feeling flow, the last one, is more about the memory of the daffodils, he is more aware of the feelings now that he is alone again (“solitude”) that when he was seeing the landscape he describes. There are many personifications and images of the daffodils. He uses these to contrast his own loneliness with crowded nature. This implies that he may feel alone while he is around people in contrast with when he is around nature. That is when he is aware of his feelings. This is why this poem is journey of the poet from the outside to the inner self. compara RAM