Daffodils

A poem about the blessing of fond memories.

1802

King George III 1760-1820

Not exactly a ‘dancing host’, but these are daffodils near Ullswater in Cumbria’s Lake District, the very lake beside which Wordsworth saw his famous flowers.

Introduction

Wordsworth indulges in the comfortable memory of a walk beside Ullswater in the English Lake District, and reflects that to remember happiness is to live it twice.

by William Wordsworth 1770-1850

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.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

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.

by William Wordsworth 1770-1850

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Précis

Wordsworth recalls walking beside a lake in his beloved Cumbria, and seeing a long line of daffodils nodding cheerfully in the wind. The sight pleased him at the time, but he did not realise then how often it would come back to his mind’s eye, when he was relaxing alone, to fill him again with the same delight.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What was Wordsworth doing when he saw the daffodils?

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