DSC 101/CBCS The Daffodils (42) 24, 26,
William Wordsworth is the poet of "The Daffodils." He belonged to the first generation Romantic poets. The first generation Romantic poets and writers of the nineteenth century English literature were much or directly influenced by the principles of the French Revolution. William Blake and S. T. Coleridge are other first generation Romantic poets of the nineteenth century.
The poem is about the memories of daffodils and nature. The experience he had of the nature and daffodils is good memory to him and his heart ‘opened’ a bit, but overall he is more or less the same with his ‘vacant or in pensive mood.' The two moods of the poet are, Happy mood when he is free from worries and A pensive mood when he is serious and thoughtful. He perceives himself as aimless and as passive as a cloud, which depends completely on the weather and nature for its direction and speed. Being lonely like a floating cloud in the sky, the poet experiences freedom and loneliness at the same time. The freedom allows the poet to appreciate the beauty of the world whole-heartedly, such as the daffodils. As a powerless and aimless cloud, the poet could only watch and appreciate, but he could not join the daffodils in dancing and fluttering in the breeze.
He is delighted by the wonderful sight. This is explicitly revealed in the use of diction of ‘bliss’ and ‘pleasure’, and he is so happy that his heart seems to dance with the daffodils. He also feels the bliss of solitude, because it is peaceful and comfortable to be alone sometimes in such a huge open area, and seeing the flowers, he wants to become a part of them. In the beginning, he’s aloof and prefers to stay in his comfort zone, “Which is the bliss of solitude”. But when he witnesses the “gay” daffodils, he has a desire to be part of the world he has been observing, to join the “crowd” and to belong to the happiness. "And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.” The fact that only his heart “dances with the daffodils suggests that spiritually, he feels like he belongs to the group; physically, he still doesn’t dare to step out from his little world. Though it may seem that he has stepped out of his comfort zone, still it is only a desire in his heart. Again this may suggest that he enjoys living in a better little world on his own rather than the harsh reality of existing in society degraded by humans although he can still feel the beauty of nature.
The poet was wandering alone in the country side when he came across the daffodils. The poet compared himself with a cloud when he was wandering lonely. Since he is in the sky like a floating cloud the poet is able to see all the things and events in the world. He has a comprehensive view but he can only observe the world at a distance. There is the suggestion of perfect detachment. The daffodils were located beside a lake beneath some trees. The colour has been described as golden. In the line, "When all at once I saw a crowd" meant, there was a group of fluttering and dancing in the breeze.The poet says that he saw ten thousand daffodils at a glance. It looked uncountable and the entire area along the lake was blooming. When the poet saw the daffodils they appeared to be tossing their head in sprightly dance. The waves in the bay beside which the daffodils grew also appeared to be moving in a joyful dance.They seemed to be dancing like a human being expressing their energy and joy. When the poet saw the flowers, his imagination traveled to another world to find a comparison. He was reminded of the stars twinkling in the milky way at night. The long line of the daffodils flowers bore comparison with the bright stars seen across the night sky. Moreover, the poet felt that the movement of the daffodils was better than that of the sparkling waves. Thus it appears as though the daffodils and the waves were competing. The poet compared the daffodils to the stars because the daffodils were as continuous as the shining stars. And they twinkled as if they were stars on the milky way. The line, "They stretched in never ending line" meant here that could be ten thousand daffodils near the lake. Their rows were so long that the poet was not able to see the last end. So the poet expressed that the daffodils were stretched in a never ending line. By the phrase 'by margin of a bay' the poet means the side of a lake. Wordsworth also explains the waving of the daffodils as so beautiful that he compares them to the wave of the lake and finds them more joyful than the water waves.
The heart can dance when a man feels happy. His heart is filled with great pleasure and he feels great thrill. Then it is said that his heart dances.
Imagination plays a very important role in the making of this poem on daffodils. The poet recalls his visit of a stretch of daffodils which he reimagines and puts the experience in the form of a beautiful poem.In sheer delight and surprise he could not decide what joy this sight had brought for him. He could perhaps gaze at the pleasure of the present moment but he could not imagine how again and again in the future he would recall and re-live this experience and what ecstasy that memory would bring for him.
The lines, "Continuous as the stars that shine/And twinkle on the milky way,/ They stretched in never-ending line/Along the margin of a bay," compares them to the galaxy of innumerable stars in the sky where the glowing daffodils, the sparkling in the sunlight, were stretched along the bay. This appeared like twinkling stars in the sky to the poet.
The last verse of the poem ‘Daffodils’ explores the poet’s feelings when he reminisces the scene of daffodils he witnessed much earlier. The first three verses describe the host of golden, happy and beautiful daffodils he saw one day. The last verse discusses what an enriching experience that had been. That sight still plays on in the mind of the poet and gives him inner peace and inspires him.
The reader might conclude that the poet recognizes himself as an outcast in his society; that he feels he can only watch silently from afar. The continuing use of the image may further suggest to us that the poet may not be satisfied with what he observes of social affairs and is away from the social trend as he is looking at things from a distance. There is always a distance, psychologically and physically, between the daffodils and the poet. At the end the poet remains living in solitude, but the moment of the daffodils is in his heart, is treasured and appreciated.This comparison is quite effective in a sense that it captures the helplessness and a sense of loss, it also captures the infinite distance between the passive pensive aimless cloud (the poets’ solitude) and the active cheerful daffodils (happiness).
Everything he saw and felt, eg. the breeze, the daffodils, effect his thoughts. He ‘wandered’, ‘floats’,’gazed’, he took a more passive and quiet way to observe the world. In contrast, the daffodils, took a more active part, they ‘fluttering and dancing’,’stretched…along the margin of a bay’,’tossing their heads’.they are enjoying in the breeze and the nice weather by energetically joining and responding to it. 'They out-did the sparkling waves in glee’, this may suggest that the daffodils even make the world a more wonderful place to live in. The sparkling waves represent the mother nature while the daffodils symbolize human beings. The poet thinks that the dance of the daffodils is more attractive than the the waves. Somehow, deep down in the poet’s heart, he desires to join the daffodils and be as happy and joyful as they are. Futher more, the daffodils have roots deep down in the earth.
The use of Alliteration is evident in: “Beside” and “Beneath” (stanza l),”Ten” and “Thousand”
(stanza 2).”Tossing their heads in sprightly dance”, are the uses assonance, of “s” sound which sounds soft and comfortable. Simile is used when daffodils and stars are compared. Emphasis is evident in the the lively pace of the flowers’ “continuously”. The poet uses personification: daffodils dancing, tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The flowers share the same happiness as the poet has. Repetition is used with the word gazed to emphasize that he wanted to join in the hilarious dance of the flowers.
The literary device of inversion:
“Continuous as the stars that shine… the margin of a bay”
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
32. What do you think is the poet’s attitude towards the following 3 things: nature, memory, loneliness?
Ans: The poet clearly shows appreciation and love for nature and it is very influential.However his strong feeling of loneliness never fades away even when he sees the beautiful, absorbing and cheerful sceneries of the daffodils. He is deeply impressed by the beauty of nature, and it remains a very good memory to him. Whenever he is in his ‘pensive mood’ and feeling ‘vacant’, perhaps emotionally and physically, the good memory of the daffodils flash back to him as a ‘bliss’ and ‘pleasure’, which release him for a while from the loneliness and ‘solitude’ that he is experiencing.
33. Who are ‘they’ referred to in the third line of the last stanza? When had the poet come across them?
Ans:- 'They’ referred to in the third line of the last stanza are the lively and beautiful dancing daffodils. The poet had earlier seen them when he was wandering in solitude over hills and valleys and he had suddenly come across a multitude of daffodils beside a lake dancing in the breeze.
34. Explain the phrase ‘bliss of solitude’ in the context in which it has been used.
Ans:- The phrase ‘bliss of solitude’ implies that solitude is pleasant as it gives the poet the opportunity to dwell on the memory of the daffodils dancing in the breeze. lt is only when he is free and alone that the sight of the daffodils flashes upon his imagination and he can once again experience the happiness he had earlier felt. But this happens only in solitude.
35. What do you think is the message of the poem?
Ans: The message of the poem is that the little moments in life could be the most profound. He felt that nature gives man peace and joy and is a constant source of happiness. He believed that man and nature are one.
36. Why does the poet use the word ‘wandered’?
Ans: "Wandered” means roaming around without a purpose, like when you explore something. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But in its metaphorical use, “wandered” can mean feeling purposeless and directionless in general.
37. The poet uses the word lonely in reference to a cloud. Explain.
Ans: The first concept that we want to take a look at is that the cloud is “lonely.” Are clouds lonely? Well, maybe the ones that float about valleys (“vales”) and hills are lonely. It’s more likely, the speaker is projecting his own loneliness on the clouds. But that still doesn’t explain the strange image, because clouds usually travel in groups. Maybe a cloud is lonely because it is so far above the rest of the world. Its thoughts are just so “lofty,” and maybe the speaker’s thoughts are, too.Also, the cloud could be lonely because it floats over a natural landscape with no people in it. Maybe the speaker has thought of hills and valleys because he happens to be “wandering” through such a landscape.
38. Explain the use of words like ‘fluttering’ and ‘dancing’ as used by the poet.
Ans: "Fluttering” suggests, flight, which could bring us to angels or even birds or butterflies.”Dancing” is something that usually only humans do. The daffodils are given the qualities of humans and also of some kind of otherworldly creatures, perhaps.
39. The poet compares the flowers to the milky way. Is the comparison apt?
Ans: Like the Milky Way , the flowers are roughly concentrated in a line that seem to stretch as far as the eye can see (“never-ending”). The flowers line the shore (“margin”) of a bay of the lake, which must be a relatively large lake.The Milky Way appears to be a band that has more stars and a brighter appearance than the night sky around it. It’s not a perfectly clear line, but more like a fuzzy approximation of a line. We imagine the same effect with the flowers. It’s not as if there are no flowers outside the shore of the lake, but most of them are concentrated on the shore. So to a large extent the comparison is apt.
40. How does the poet describe the flowers by using personification?
Ans: The speaker takes in “ten thousand” dancing flowers at once. The flowers “toss their heads” while dancing to the wind. By “heads” we think he means the part of the flower with the petals, the weight of which causes the rest of the flower to bob. “Sprightly” means happily or merrily. The word derives from “sprite,” which refers to the playful little spirits that people once thought inhabited nature. “Sprites” are supernatural beings, almost like fairies. The day that inspired this poem was a stormy one, so the waves on this medium-to-large sized lake must have been larger than usual. Maybe they were even cresting into whitecaps.The point is that the entire scene has suddenly been invested with a joyful human-like presence. Since waves do not bring as much joy as the yellow flowers, the flowers “out-did” the water with their happiness. The waves “sparkle,” which creates yet another association with the stars. Everything seems to be gleaming and twinkling and shining-and sparkling.Despite his earlier loneliness, the speaker now can’t help but feel happy, or “gay,” with such a beautiful vision to look at.Or, as he puts at, with such joyful and carefree (“jocund”) “company” to hang out with. The flowers and waves feel like companions to him.
41. Explain the following:
They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude;
Ans: Whenever the poet gets in a pensive mood, the image of the daffodils “flashes” through his mind. The “inward eye” or his imagination expresses what Wordsworth felt to be a deeper, truer spiritual vision. A person cannot share his or her own spiritual vision completely with others, and so it is a form of “solitude.” But its truth and beauty make it “blissful.” When the memory of the flowers and the lake flashes into his head, he feels happy again. It’s almost like the same experience he had while “wandering” through nature at the beginning of the poem, when the real daffodils pushed the loneliness out of his head.The memory of the daffodils is as good as the real thing. His heart is set to dancing, just like the flowers. He dances along “with” them – they are his cheerful companions once again.
42. Analyse the symbol of Clouds, Sky, and Heavens.
Ans:- "I wandered lonely as a Cloud” has the remote, otherworldly atmosphere that is suggested by the title. The speaker feels like a cloud, distant and separated from the world below. But this distance becomes a good thing when he comes upon the daffodils, which are like little stars. It’s as if the problem at the beginning is that he hasn’t ascended high enough.The beginning of the poem makes a simile between the speaker’s wandering and the “lonely” distant movements of a single cloud. Clouds can’t be lonely, so we have another example of personification.The second stanza begins with a simile comparing the shape and number of the daffodils to the band of stars that we call the Milky Way galaxy.