Thursday, December 01, 2005

Poetry Language: Simile, imagery, time

THE DAFFODILS; OR, I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

by: William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

WANDERED lonely as a cloud [JSA1]

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host[JSA2] , of golden daffodils[JSA3] ;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

[JSA4] [JSA5]

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of the 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

[JSA6] I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth [JSA7] the show [JSA8] 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 [JSA9] the daffodils.

[JSA10] 'The Daffodils; or, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

ü Repetition of ideas

o Four elements

o Dancing

o Last stanza is a repetition of his experience

ü Change of tense – the first three stanzas are in past tense, and the last stanza is in the present tense.

[JSA1]Why does he choose the cloud as a simile: Passive, without will, up above, not rooted or bound to anything, alone.

[JSA2]Why does he use the word “host”? Heavenly host? Welcoming to him, inviting him to join in their company?

[JSA3]Why daffodils? He did write this poem after seeing a field of daffodils on a walk – his sister writes an account of it. But he could have changed the flower as a poet – a poet uses language deliberately and metaphorically, not historically. What do we notice about the flowers that are unique to daffodils? Their color is golden (refers to wealth later in the poem).

[JSA4]How do the daffodils differ from the cloud? Grounded, rooted, and not alone,

[JSA5]Wordsworth depersonifies himself. Why? Why does he personify the daffodils?

[JSA6]Why does he say it this way rather than telling us directly that he felt happy? He continues to depersonalize himself by referring himself in the third person and by his occupation as a writer. He states this as a fact. He uses understatement, which suggests that he was perhaps less happy than he should be. In the last stanza, this interpretation is verified.

[JSA7]Why wealth? Golden daffodils – like treasure, money, etc. He sees this encounter with nature as an economic transaction – a deposit from which he can later withdraw the dividends when he is low on personal resources.

[JSA8]Why does he call it “the show”? The daffodils dance in the wind. It makes their swaying into an action performed for him.

[JSA9]Wordsworth often uses prepositions as key to meaning. He puts “with” in a stressed syllable. Why is it important? He achieves full union with the flowers only in his recollection of his experience in his memory. The memory of the event is stronger than the actual event – the spiritual experience.

[JSA10]Dramatizes the workings of the human mind. Memory is unwilled and independent (like a cloud?).

posted by Jeffrey @ Thursday, December 01, 2005 0 comments