Daffodils by William Wordsworth
The poem was written in the year 1802. It was first published in Poems in Two Volumes, in 1807. The very starting line of the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” informs the poets profound sentiments of being left alone. It was actually the death of his brother John that led him to “loneliness”. We should remind the readers that this poem was not a result of imagination. Dorothy, Wordsworth’s sister provides us an explanation of the occasion which inspired Wordsworth to produce this masterpiece:– “When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park, we saw a few daffodils close to waterside.” Thus the poem is a result of actual visualization rather than imagery”. In the beginning lines, Wordsworth describes himself as a ‘cloud’ that floats over the hills. This presents an idea of seclusion. The idea of being alone is contradicted by the phrase “crowd”. This is actually the ‘setting of the poem‘. As human form Wordsworth prefers seclusion but the ‘crowd’ of daffodils bewilders his se