Poem imagery

Imagery Analysis of I Wander Lonely as a Cloud by: William Wadsworth In this piece, Wadsworth is essentially letting his mind wander as he finds himself in solitude. ” I wandered lonely as a cloud” gives the reader the sense of an almost non permanence. One thinks of a cloud and the imagery is that of something transparent, not tangible. This intangible nature illustrates loneliness for the poet in this line. To then cast a background to the idea of loneliness, he goes on to say ” when all at once I saw a crowd” thus reinforcing the loneliness before the ” crowd” appeared.
In the next line, the reader discovers that the crowd is actually ” daffodils” and not people. By personifying nature as a ” crowd” the poet is escaping his solitude. The poet goes on to give human characteristics to the daffodils by describing them as ” dancing in the breeze”. The following lines give the reader the sense that the poet is going even further into his curing of loneliness by personifying nature as he assimilates the daffodils with stars” continuous as the stars that shine”. He was just comparing himself to a cloud and a few lines later, the poet compares the daffodils to stars, also a celestial object. He is identifying with the daffodils.
His personification of the daffodils continues in the line ” tossing their heads in sprightly dance”. By giving the daffodils human characteristics, he is able to find comfort in their presence thus emphasizing his loneliness from the beginning, even more so. In hindsight, he is claiming to not have realized the beauty or the importance of this moment in time as he goes on to say” I gazed- and gazed but -little thought, What wealth the show to me had brought”. He continues with this tense of remembering by saying ” for off when on my couch I lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye, that is the bliss of solitude”. He is no longer lonely at this point in the piece, he is illustrating with these lines that being in solitude allows him to think and even ponder on the beauty in the world. The last two lines of the poem read ” And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils”.
The poet is essentially making a journey or having an epiphany in this piece. He is starting out as a ” cloud” and juggling a sense of loneliness. But as the piece goes on, ” all at once” he has a kind of awakening in the seeing of daffodils. From this point on, he is painting a picture of multitudes of daffodils that have come to life for him” they stretched in never ending line, along the margin of a bay”. The reader can picture an army of flower-like beings that are overwhelming to the poet.
If the poet was morose in the beginning of the piece, he makes a full circle to not only ” my heart with pleasure fills” but almost a total sense of peace. There is a very natural and organic feel to this piece. He is using imagery in nature to paint a landscape of happiness and bliss for the reader. Wadsworth describes himself as a cloud, daffodils as stars and then personifies them, and even places them as lined up ” along the bay”. He is going back and forth with natural elements and human characteristics to create what he is feeling inside.
Overall, this is an elemental piece that has a so many earthy components which illustrate human emotion. Wadsworth is appreciating nature here, and coming into his own in a sense. He is getting comfortable with his surroundings and finding happiness in existence. He is not being preachy or trying to convince the reader of anything but instead, is just making the scene as appealing to his reader as it is to him. He is placing his reader along the bay, ” dancing with the daffodils” in such a way that the reader may consider experiencing such happiness on their own.
Even though Wadsworth places himself back on his couch near the end, his triumph over the possible loneliness of the beginning of the poem is that he can return to his bliss in his mind or ” inward eye”, any time he wants to.