Daffodils
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.
The poem is written by the poet William Wordsworth, who was a poet who loves to write romantic poems. However, this poem "Daffodils" is more applicable to friendship as compared to romance. After further analysis, we realized that this poem, “Daffodils” is more about the Daffodils are a form of representation of simple yet people in our lives where we interact with everyday, who will be our friends. People, who can take pleasures from everyday life, do not really have to worry about some great world problems because they can be optimistic about it. Whenever you are feeling down just think of happy moments so that you can feel better rather than just looking at things at a pessimistic perspective. The poem also seems cheerful and sounded like a merry dancing rhythm. This poem also made use of the nature scene which gave us a deeper understanding of the poem as we can visualize the scene of the poem with the imagery used, which allow us to imagine the scene with the context of the poem.
From stanza one, we can see that the poet is walking around aimlessly without a purpose, as gathered from the word, “wondered”, which proves that he walks around without a specific destination and aim. This can further being inferred that in life we are actually similar to this poet as we always do things aimlessly without thinking about the purpose of doing things. It is also evident that the poet had projected his loneliness through a cloud which is by its own. Also, the gentle movement of the Daffodils, from the line of the poem, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze" allow us to visualize the beautiful scene of golden daffodils swaying gracefully to the rhythm and tempo of the wind. This imagery allow us to have an idea of how the daffodils will look like when they are swaying, where the gentle movement of the daffodils enhanced their attractions and gracefulness. After finding out more about the meaning of daffodils online, we found out that daffodils are actually flowers that are quite resilient that will normally bloom in large numbers after winter. This is more significant to showcase their tenacity because the hardest stage for most plants is to bloom and grow after winter. So from the daffodils, we can also learn that tenacity is important too.
From stanza two, it began with a simile, “continuous as the stars that shine”, which further reinforced the connection of stars to the daffodils. Therefore, the poet described the daffodils as similar to “milky wave”, which further suggest that the daffodils are densely packed together, and also seem to be never ending, where the poet made use of the literary device of hyperbole. This shows that the author is astounded by the beauty of daffodils and also enchanted by the wonder of daffodils swaying in alternating swaying motions. This further suggest that the poet is trying to allow us to visualize the beauty of daffodils fluttering in the wind, which further allow the readers to appreciate and also to pay close attention to the little details of natures so that we can realize the importance of the ways in which natures play an important part to our lives. By using nature, in this case using daffodils to depict the scene and the settings of the poem, we can actually learn to visualize better, especially with the use of skillful method of styling the poem in a way that it allows the reader to have a better view of the poem settings.
From stanza three it is evident that the poet personified the breeze and the daffodils as human-like that have a joyful presence with the use of imageries, from the line in the poem, "The waves beside them danced", where waves and daffodils are personified as cheerful beings that bring liveliness to the scene. However, we can see that from the line "Out-did the sparkling waves in glee", that the golden daffodils actually outran the beauty of the waves and the breeze and the scene is very fascinating to see because it is considered rather pleasant to the eyes of the poet which the scene will be in part of his memory that will remind him of the scene, therefore, further conveying the idea of the scene of the golden daffodils swaying beside the gentle breeze acts as a memorable scene for the poet that makes it difficult for him to forget because of it's beautiful and memorable nature that will make one hard to forget. He remained enthralled by their beauty and also starting to wonder what a great bounty of nature he had stumbled upon.To us, the sea waves and breeze are actually our competitors in the various aspects in life such as CCA, in terms of academic strength, etc. When many of us from the same group work together we can also match up to them or even be better than them, just like the group of daffodils, and they are different from the breeze in terms of vibrancy of colours, which will be similar to the skills and effort that we put in daily in the attempt to be better each day.
From stanza four, it is evident that the poet will remember this joyful scene whenever he was feeling down and will often be contented after recalling this cheerful scene. It is evident from the point from the poem that "In vacant or in pensive mood , they flash upon an inward eye", which further suggest that the poet will remember the scene of the daffodils swaying gracefully in alternation beside the waves and the breeze from the sea, which makes it so unique as the daffodils outdid the beauty of the graceful sea waves and the sea breeze with its astounding beauty. In the event that the poet is feeling down due to certain reasons, he will use the scene of the daffodils that he had commented as wonderful scene. Hopefully, he will use that as a form of motivation to be amazed and feel enlightened when he is feeling down and with such a picturesque scene in mind, he will be able to feel positive like the daffodils, which have positive impacts to him because the daffodils can actually act as a main source of aspiration to be more perseverance to overcome the hardship in life and also to stand tall in times of adversity and not giving up easily.
After all these analysis, we can come to a conclusion that the daffodils could be the people that we see in our life and those who supported us with moral support everyday, which are our friends and classmates. And these acts that they do that supported us emotionally and mentally, actually play an important role in our life, which will be like the scene of joyfulness of the daffodils and the sea, that will be special and will stay as memory within us and will be refreshed in our memories and it will help us to be more optimistic and will also encourage us to go through the saddening times with more courage as sad times will pass by quickly if we want to be optimistic and get over it by being persevering and as well as to have challenges pave in front of us to be more competitive to strive for excellence and to be better together.
An artist's impression of William Wordsworth:
The scenery of the daffodils in the poem "milky wave"
Credits: http://smilingldsgirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/6a00e54fe4158b883301156fc0cfd5970b-800wi.jpg
This is how daffodils looked like:
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