This is the first line and title of William Wordsworth’s famous poem about daffodils. Wordsworth, one of the key figures of the Romantic movement in English literature, wrote these lines after a walk with his sister Dorothy along the shores of Ullswater lake in the Lake District, in North West England.
Typically in Romantic poetry, nature and the weather are used literally and symbolically to discuss feelings and emotional states, drawing connections between characters and the landscapes around them. Here the poet literally walked along the lake, looking at the daffodils, and then wrote this poem to describe the experience. Describing what he saw on the walk, he uses a simile to say he is like a cloud and to express how he felt about the experience. He compares himself to a solitary cloud in the sky, that “floats on high o’er vale and hill” - as described in the second line of the poem. The use of the word lonely could suggest that the writer is alone or lonely or feeling disconnected from the world, or perhaps feeling disconnected from nature. Interestingly, an extract from his sister Dorothy’s diary describes the experience of seeing the daffodils together, so we know he was not literally alone on the walk that inspired the poem, but as is often the case with poetry, the poem tells its own story.
The sight of the daffodils ‘wakes him up’ to the beauty all around him and is a memory he treasures in later days when he is not near this colorful sight, as seen in the final verse. He uses words like glee, sprightly, and dancing to show the happiness the daffodils embody and inspire.
Daffodils can still be seen along the shores of Ullswater today and the poem is frequently printed on postcards and souvenirs as it has resonated for so many who visit the Lake District to enjoy experiencing the beauty of nature.
William Wordsworth's speaker in the poem uses a simile to compare himself, a man, with a cloud that floats over hills and valleys.
A quality that clouds have is that they are removed from what is on earth because of their placement in the sky. They can float above the earth, but not interact with what is below. In human terms, this might represent a lonely existence.
The speaker expresses his detachment as he wanders; he observes nature, in particular, a long line of spring daffodils. He cannot join them, as he himself is not a flower, which might make him feel lonely as an outsider. But on the other hand, as an appreciative observer of nature and a poet, he can still be lifted up by the memory of the sight of the daffodils as they danced in the breeze.
This, the first line of the poem, is a simile. A simile is a comparison of two unalike things that uses the word like or as. The speaker is comparing himself to a cloud, as he is walking all alone in nature just as a single cloud floats in the sky above nature. The speaker is essentially saying, "I wandered through nature by myself, like a solitary cloud floats through the sky." He sees a group of ten thousand daffodils waving in the wind beside the water in a bay, and the sight of the "sparkling waves" and the "sprightly danc[ing]" flowers makes him feel happy. He watches for a long time but does not realize at the time that in the future, whenever he wants to, he will be able to remember the image of those flowers. He sees them with his "inward eye" and feels the pleasure all over again.
William Wordsworth's Romantic era poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" begins with that line, "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Wordsworth is literally talking about how he is walking through nature and making observations. He is alone and sort of drifting without a definite aim or purpose. The line is phrased as a simile because Wordsworth says he wanders "as a cloud" to compare himself to the cloud. Like the cloud, he figuratively "floats on high o'er vales and hills" (2). Again, this is a nonliteral way for Wordsworth to say that he is walking around leisurely and making note of what he sees around him; in the way the cloud has an enviable vantage point due to its height and perspective, Wordsworth's position as a lone wanderer allows him to really focus on his surroundings and imbue them with meaning. Thereafter, he primarily focuses on "a crowd, / a host, of golden Daffodils" (3-4). This image gives him pleasure when he looks on them in nature, but also "when on my couch lie / In vacant or in pensive mood," he can call up this image of the daffodils, and it will cheer him up immediately.
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