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William WordsworthA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Although the speaker in the poem compares himself to a cloud, he does not consider himself to be at one with nature. However, a shift in perspective takes place in the poem when he sees a “crowd” (Line 3) of daffodils that are “dancing” (Line 6). This personification brings nature into the human plane, allowing the speaker to realize that he is, in fact, a part of what he sees, even when he seems to be at a remove from it.
This is reinforced by the fact that he is no longer lonely once he encounters the daffodils. Their very plurality suggests fellowship. The speaker is momentarily transported, no longer “I” but “A poet,” viewing himself objectively as one living being among others: “A poet could not but be gay, / In such a jocund company” (Lines 15-16).
The daffodils may seem like celestial bodies that “twinkle on the milky way” (Line 8), but they are embodied on “the margin of the bay” (Line 10) and are therefore within the speaker’s reach. Their vivid physicality at the end of the third stanza, expressed in the line “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (Line 12), shows that the speaker is close to them, emotionally if not physically.
By William Wordsworth
A Complaint
A Complaint
William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
Daffodils
Daffodils
William Wordsworth
Tintern Abbey
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...
William Wordsworth
London, 1802
London, 1802
William Wordsworth
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
My Heart Leaps Up
My Heart Leaps Up
William Wordsworth
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
William Wordsworth
She Was a Phantom of Delight
She Was a Phantom of Delight
William Wordsworth
The Prelude
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth
The World Is Too Much with Us
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth
To the Skylark
To the Skylark
William Wordsworth
We Are Seven
We Are Seven
William Wordsworth