The verges near where I live are seasonally awash with daffodils, as no doubt are yours if you live virtually anywhere in the UK, so what better time to take a look at that classic poem that regularly makes its way into the nation’s favourite poem lists, namely William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (aka Daffodils)? I’m less certain about nowadays, but when I was young, this poem was the one that literally everyone knew. If pushed to quote a line of poetry you could always fall back upon “I wandered lonely as a cloud” in the same way you might have said “To be or not to be” if pushed to quote Shakespeare.
Wordsworth was the man who helped to launch the Romantic movement in English literature when, in 1798, he published Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As well as being a volume of poems by the two men, the work included a preface expounding the poets’ literary theory and principles. They wanted to make poetry accessible to the average person by writing verse in common, everyday language and with common, everyday subjects as the focus. This was against the grain, of course — how often do we find an artist, famous to us today, pushing the boundaries of convention in their own time?
Although initially received modestly, Lyrical Ballads came to be seen as a masterpiece and launched both poets into the public gaze, so when in 1807 Wordsworth published Poems, in Two Volumes, including Daffodils, he was already a well-known figure in literary circles. Wordsworth had talked of poetry being “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”, and Daffodils is the perfect illustration of what he meant ( 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…) .
It was inspired by Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy having come across a long and striking swathe of daffodils whilst out on a stroll around Ullswater in April 1802. Dorothy was a keen diarist who recorded her own feelings about the daffodils, and this likely helped William frame his poem, and indeed, Wordsworth’s wife Mary also contributed a couple of lines to the poem: it was a real family affair. If you want to remind yourself of the poem beyond its immortal opening line, here it is…
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.
