THE DAFFODILS

By: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Summary
A great lover of nature, William Wordsworth, had once wandered aimlessly just like a
cloud floats in the sky. He had suddenly come across countless golden daffodils by
the side of a lake. Those golden daffodils were fluttering and dancing in the air,
appearing like stars twinkling in the sky. The made as if they were dancing in a
frenzy.

The poet compares the golden daffodils with the stars that shine and twinkle in the
sky. The poet feels the number of the daffodils as never-ending as the stars in the
Milky Way.

The waves of the lake are also dancing but the dance of the daffodils surpassed the
dance of the waves in happiness. The poet is wonderfully delighted in such a
pleasant company. According to the poet, he could scarcely realize that he was
collecting a treasure in his mind.

As time went on the poet found himself in the vacant or pensive mood but the
beautiful sight of the golden daffodils began appearing in his mind and that
recollection filled the poet’s heart with extraordinary delight.

In a nutshell, the poem exemplifies how William words worth, a pantheist, derive
extraordinary bliss in the most ordinary things.

Stanza 1
I wandered lonely…………. in the breeze.
Did you notice the contrasts in this stanza? The poet is depicted as a single, lonely
person. The daffodils aren’t just a ‘crowd’ but a ‘host’. Think about the connotative
meaning of the word ‘host’. It has many connotations, but as a collective noun, it is
used most often to refer to angels. This meaning recalls one of the most
fundamentals concerns of most Romantic poets: to think of nature the way others
think of religion. What the poet can derive from observations of the natural world is
no less important than the lessons taught by religious doctrines. By comparing
himself to a cloud, the poet is perhaps trying to participate in the natural order of
things or perhaps trying to pretend that he is a cloud in order to avoid confronting
whatever issues make him lonely.

Also interesting in this stanza is the difference between the actions of ‘fluttering’ and
‘dancing’. Usually, something flutters because something else causes it to flutter.
However, dancing conveys a sense of agency: it’s an active action, whereas
‘fluttering’ is a more passive one.

Stanza 2
Continuous as the stars……. in sprightly dance.
In this stanza, Wordsworth makes use of hyperbole or exaggeration by saying that
he saw ‘ten thousand’ daffodils ‘at a glance’. The word ‘never-ending’ is also an
exaggeration. Here, the poet is drawing attention to the fact that perception can differ
from reality. The daffodils aren’t actually in a never-ending line, but there are so
many of them that the line seems never-ending; so, in one sense, it is never-ending
because the eye cannot see the end of it.

Note how the dancing from the previous stanza has now become a ‘sprightly dance’.
It is even more vibrant now, and the addition of the description ‘tossing their heads’
really does make it seem as though the flowers have an active will of their own.

Stanza 3

The waves beside……… to me had brought:

Are you beginning to notice how the poet ascribes human qualities to the natural
world? In this stanza, it isn’t just the flowers but also the waves that are dancing. The
intensity of emotions conveyed is also steadily increasing as the poem progresses.
From being ‘sprightly’ in the previous stanza, the flowers are now full of ‘glee’. Note
the implication that the glee is infectious: it appears as though the daffodils have
passed it on to the waves, and to the poet himself.
The repetition of the word ‘gazed’ reinforces the idea that the speaker looked at the
scene for a long time. Until this point in the poem, we are given the literal description
of the scene that the poet is looking at. Just as he has no thoughts about the ‘wealth’
that the scene has given him, so his readers are only given descriptions without
accompanying ideas. The use of the word ‘show’ suggests a rehearsed
performance: it is almost as though the poet is suggesting that the daffodils are the
protagonists in a theatrical tableau.

Also notice that this stanza ends with a colon, suggesting a continuation of thought.
In grammatical terms, colons are often used before definitions and explanations. So
we can expect the final stanza to exemplify the meaning of the previous section of
the poem.

Stanza 4
For oft, when on my couch …… dances with the daffodils.
‘For’ often conveys the meaning of ‘because’. The word seems to suggest that this
stanza will present us with the explanation for why the poet says that watching the
‘show’ brought him ‘wealth’. Doesn’t the image of lying on a couch suggest the idea
of being in a psychiatrist’s office? Wordsworth seems to be suggesting that recalling
the scene with the daffodils is therapeutic to him. The ‘inward eye’ is that of memory,
on which the scene has been imprinted in such a way that it flashes to life when the
poet is in a ‘vacant’ or ‘pensive’ mood. Note again how the word ‘flash’ suggests an
active action. The poet doesn’t say that he deliberately tries to remember the scene.
The scene flashes into his mind, and it does so often (‘oft’), almost as though it has a
will of its own that allows it to enter the poet’s mind whenever he is in a receptive
mood.

Also, note the relationship between the time-related words ‘when’ and ‘then’. When
something happens, then something else happens: this correlation indicates a cause
and effect relationship. When the daffodils flash into the poet’s ‘inward eye’, then his
heart fills with pleasure. The words ‘bliss’ and ‘pleasure’ continue the sense of ‘glee’
from the previous paragraph.

The peak of the poet’s ‘bliss’ here is that his heart ‘dances with the daffodils.’ It’s
almost as though the scene is recreated, and this time the poet can actually
participate in the ‘show’ rather than just be an observer. In this sense, the memory of
the scene seems even more powerful than the poet’s encounter with the scene.

Questions
1. After reading the poem, can you guess what a daffodil is?
Ans. The daffodil is a flower that is yellow and therefore comparable to gold in its
colour. They usually grow near lakes. On seeing the yellow daffodils the poet
perhaps recollects some golden memories that he cherishes in the lonely time. He,
therefore, calls them ‘golden daffodils’.

Q. Why does the poet compare the daffodils to stars?

Ans. The poet compares the daffodils to stars because the daffodils stretch in never-
ending line like the stars in the galaxy. Moreover, like stars, the daffodils shine as
they are golden and also twinkle like the stars as they flutter due to the breeze. This
is a clear indication that daffodils are heavenly stars.

Q. Why has the poet described solitude as being blissful?

Ans. The poet described solitude as being blissful because when the poet is lonely
and not doing anything the thought of golden daffodils that he has seen dancing and
fluttering in the valley fills his mind with pleasure and he rejoices the moment.

Q. What does the inward eye mean? What is it that flashes upon his eye? Do
you think the poet is affected by it in any way? Give reasons.
Ans. The inward eye means visual imagination that takes the poet to the world of
past recollection. It is something that cannot be shared with other people. The
golden daffodils which he has seen in the valley flash upon his inward eye. The
memory of dancing and fluttering daffodils fills his heart with pleasure.
It is like a spiritual vision that brings a feeling of joy. It is a blessing for the poet. That
is why the poet calls the inward eye a ‘bliss of solitude’.

9. Where were the daffodils growing?

Answer: The Daffodils were growing beside the lake under the trees.

Q. What are the objects the poet compares with the daffodils?
Answer: The poet compares the daffodils with the dancing waves and shining and
twinkling stars.

Q. What is the effect of daffodils on the poet?

Answer: The daffodils fill the poet’s heart with pleasure and he feels happy with
them.

Q. What is the bliss of solitude according to the poet?

Answer: When the person is in solitude and there is nobody around him. He is all
alone. He has the opportunity to think of nature. In the poem the poet says that when
he is either busy thinking or not thinking about anything he is reminded of the
daffodils. He says that loneliness becomes lovely if he thinks about daffodils in his
loneliness. When he remembers the daffodils he starts feeling happy, content and
perfectly at peace with himself. This happens because of solitude.

Q. Why does the poet stop on seeing the daffodils?

Answer: The poet stops on seeing the daffodils because never before in his life had
he seen such beautiful golden daffodils and that too in such a very large number. He
is completely attracted towards them.

Q. What is the theme of this poem?

Answer: The healing and refreshing effect of Nature is the theme of this poem.