The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two poems with similar names, but very different content, tone, stylistic features and didactic message. The first poem is William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” written in 1804. The second poem is “To Daffodils” written by Robert Herrick in 1675. Both poems are about the comparison between man and nature, in this case, it’s the daffodils, but the poems are written in a different way. The poems are very different in terms of the way daffodils affect the writer’s state of mind.

The poems have contrasting content and theme. Wordsworth’s poem tells a story about a lonely man walking, when he saw a field full of daffodils and he became happy and overjoyed. Robert Herrick’s poem takes a darker path, as he writes about death and decay by comparing the short life of daffodils with the short lives of people. ‘The Daffodils’ has a merry and lively theme of joy and happiness. The poem provides an optimistic outlook on life, embracing the aesthetical beauty of nature and the surroundings. Wordsworth’s ending sentence, “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils” and many other uses of positive word choices that beautify the daffodils and its surroundings give a lighthearted feel to the poem. On the contrary, ‘To Daffodils’ give a sadder, somber theme of the death and the shortness of life. Robert Herrick’s poem is extremely negative and his usage of words “We have short time to stay, as you”, and the many references to death on the poem signify the melancholic and depressing tone of the poem.

Wordsworth’s ‘The Daffodils’ is written in a first person singular form, and by using it, the poem gives the impression that the readers are ‘inside’ the poem and experiencing the poem directly. The poem’s first line “I wandered lonely as a cloud” is one evidence of the poem’s form. On the other hand,