James Smith
Prof. K. Allens
ENL 102- 63
10 October 2013
“I wondered Lonely as A Cloud” By William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
The second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson, William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cocker mouth, Cumberland (Heritage). Wordsworth's father, even though rarely present, taught him poetry, comprising of Milton, Shakespeare and Spenser. Though Hawkshead School was Wordsworth's first involvement with education, he was taught to read by his mother, while attending a tiny school of poor standard in Cockermouth (Everett).
"I wandered lonely as a cloud" proceeds in the Lake District of Northern England. This area is famous for its hundreds of lakes, stunning breadths of season daffodils
In Wordsworth's poem of topic, he begins in the first stanza the memory of a time when he meandered over the valleys and hills, "lonely as a cloud." Finally, he came across a crowd of daffodils stretching out over almost everything he could see, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (Cambridge).
In the second stanza, the author delves into more elements about the daffodils. They reminded him of the Milky Way, maybe because there were so many flowers swarming together that they seemed to be never-ending. The author speculates that there were ten thousand daffodils, which were "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance" (Gill).
The third stanza, the speaker compares the surfs of the large lake to the waves of daffodils swaying in the wind. While reading the fourth and finishing stanza the poet pronounces the lesson from the experience. Subsequently, when he was solitary or feeling "pensive," he recalled the daffodils, remembering them with his "inward eye," (Grovier). He later appreciates the value that it takes on.
The poem recollects a moment on April 15, 1802, when Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, were walking near a lake at