William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” brings to life many vibrant images of what the author saw on the occasion from which the poem is written. How he was wandering about is the first; floating lonely as a cloud, which could mean graceful, it could be fast or slow, but “o’er vales and hills” is important because the reader visualizes, better, the surroundings which are being described in the poem. A signature trait of Wordsworth and his Romantic contemporaries, clear imagery brings the reader closer to the subject of the poem.
The image of the daffodils is impressed upon the reader in a very vivid way. Anyone who has observed a breezy day, and the way that plants, flowers, and water appear and move on such a day, could easily see through Wordsworth’s eyes this scene, thanks to the manner in which he wrote it. We see the shock of yellow (he says golden) and the mass of flowers, swaying and bending in the breeze. Assign a personality to them and they could be nothing but happy, and to inflict that emotion onto their audience…and as Wordsworth notes, more acutely felt by the Poet.
Naturally the images brought into our view by the author are quite important to the theme of the poem, and the theme is the happiness brought about by the author’s privilege in viewing the daffodil’s dance. He conjures up that image later and uses it to give himself an emotional boost (and feels grateful for his solitude in allowing for his mind to perform this function.) The local of the daffodils heightens the reaction to them, as they are next to a body of water which too can be personified, which too the poet has prescribed human-like action and feeling.
We expect a demonstration of nature in this manner from a Romantic Poet, as it was, among other things, a prominent theme in the poetry of that movement. As it is argued (thanks to a local Park University professor) that the Romantic movement has yet to end, as I student I am unsure as to whether or not this sort of imagery is out of touch with writers or readers of poetry today. I believe that people have come to realize that in our modern world we are out of touch with nature, (and not necessarily as a matter of choice) and at a spiritual level more people are making an attempt to reconnect with nature, in an effort to bring forth personal enlightenment and peace
