“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

Meteorological spring has arrived, and the first spring flowers are already in bloom. To me personally, no other flower symbolizes spring better than daffodils, which has led me to the subject of this post: Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.”

You might think the poet is the main character of this poem – the I of the first line – but it is actually these beautiful flowers that steal the show. Growing everywhere, as far as the poet’s inner eye can see, they flutter and dance, shine and twinkle… Bringing memories of comfort and delight to the poet’s otherwise lonely and isolated existence.

This poem speaks to me on a deeply intimate level. When I was a boy, a person very dear to me – my great-grandmother – passed away one springtime. Devastated by the sense of loss, I remember spending a lot of time in our backyard garden and sitting among the daffodils, telling them about my sadness. They were very good listeners!

Maybe I was just a weird kid, or maybe I saw in those golden flowers something that Wordsworth also recognized: their power to transform grief into joy.

I hope you’ll like this poem. If you’d like to learn more about its background, have a look at this Wikipedia article. And if you’re an English language learner, don’t miss the vocabulary exercise found below the poem (answer key available).

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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.

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VOCABULARY EXERCISE

Find the words in the poem with the following meaning:

[1st stanza]

• a light, gentle wind (noun)
• a valley (noun)
• moving lightly and quickly (present participle)
• a large number of something (noun)

[2nd stanza]

• to shine with a flickering light (verb)
• lively (adverb)
• a quick look (noun)
• a body of water surrounded by a wide curve of the land (noun)

[3rd stanza]

• cheerful, lively, in a happy mood (adjective)
• great delight, joy, happiness (noun)
• to look at something for a long time (verb)
• happy; carefree and light-hearted (adjective) 

[4th stanza]

• deeply and seriously thoughtful (adjective)
• being or living alone (noun)
• on the inside, inner (adjective)
• empty, void, without interest (adjective)

To check your answers, please click here for the answer key.

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COVER PHOTO CREDIT

Andréas BRUN via Unsplash.