A Critical Analysis of William Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”

The title, ‘Daffodils’ is a simple word that reminds us of the arrival of spring, when the field is
full of daffodils. Daffodils are yellow flowers, having an amazing shape and beautiful fragrance.
A bunch of daffodils symbolize the joy and happiness of life.

The theme of the poem ‘Daffodils’ is a collection of human emotions inspired by nature that we
may have not noticed enough due to our busy lives. The daffodils imply beginning or rebirth for
human beings, blessed with the grace of nature. The arrival of daffodils in the month of March is
welcomed and it’s an enjoyable time to appreciate them!

William Wordsworth wrote Daffodils on a stormy day in spring, while walking along with his
sister Dorothy near Ullswater Lake, in England. He imagined that the daffodils were dancing and
invoking him to join and enjoy the breezy nature of the fields. Dorothy Wordsworth, the younger
sister of William Wordsworth, found the poem so interesting that she took ‘Daffodils’ as the
subject for her journal. The poem is written as an appreciation of daffodils, and contains six lines
in four stanzas.

In the first stanza, the writer finds himself as a lonely cloud floating over the valley. The author
describes himself ‘lonely’ because his brother John was dead, leaving him alone and sad. Then
he encountered the yellow daffodils beside the lake. The flowers were swaying here and there
due to the heavy breeze, as if they were dancing happily.

Second stanza is about how amazing the daffodils looked in the spring season. The author found
those flowers like stars which shined and twinkled in the night sky. They were nodding their
heads while dancing. Then Wordsworth expressed that these beautiful flowers stood in a never-
ending line. He felt an illusion that he is watching all ten thousand of flowers altogether in a
glance.

Third stanza is the continuation of how along with the flowers, the water in the lake too moved,
as if they were competing with each other in the dance. But the glee flowers won and the
sparkling lake lost. Finding their playfulness, the author couldn’t stop himself from joining their
company. The author kept staring at both of them, wondering how his sad mood changed into a
happy one. The daffodils and lake’s dance bought him a wealth that he couldn’t deny. The
mesmerizing flowers gained a place in his heart he couldn’t understand but felt.

The last or the fourth stanza is narration of what pleasure the author had gained after watching
the daffodils dancing that day. Whenever the author, Wordsworth felt sad or alone, the picture of
dancing daffodils came to his mind and it was like he regained life’s treasure. How valuable the
solitude is! At the end, author’s heart was content in joining the daffodils’ dance.

Rhyming Scheme

The ‘Daffodils’ has a rhyming scheme throughout the poem. The rhyming scheme of the poem is
‘ABABCC‘.

The first four lines of each stanza has a rhyming scheme of ‘ABAB’. While the ending two lines,
are the rhyming couplet.

First Stanza: AA – cloud, crowd; BB – hills, daffodils; CC – trees and breeze

Second stanza: AA – shine, line; BB – way, bay; CC – glance, dance

Third stanza: AA – they, gay; BB – glee, company; CC – thought, brought

Meter

Meter is one of the most considerable elements when it comes to rhythm of a verse, Daffodils is
in a form of sixain (a stanza of six lines), each line following an iambic tetrameter. The word
iamb means unstressed-stressed syllables and tetra means four. Out of four syllables in a line,
when an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable, is called iambic tetrameter. Let’s
see in the following example; you can either make stressed syllables in bold or can mark them
(x) – unstressed and (/) – stressed.

E.g. That floats on high o’er vale and hills

1) That floats | on high | o’er vales | and hills.

x/|x/|x/|x/|

2) That floats | on high | o’er vales | and hills.

Figures of Speech Used in the Poem

Personification and Simile: I wander’d lonely as a cloud – The first line makes nice use of
personification and simile. The poet assumes himself to be a cloud (simile) floating in the sky.
When Wordsworth says in the second line ‘I’ (poet as a cloud) look down at the valleys and
mountains and appreciate the daffodils; it’s the personification, where an inanimate object
(cloud) possesses the quality of a human enabling it to see the daffodils.

Continuous as the stars that shine, And twinkle on the milky way – use of simile, daffodils
looked like twinkling stars on the milky way, thus connecting nature with the universe.

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance – use of personification, daffodils are tossing their heads
like humans, expressing their emotion of happiness through dance (it gives liveliness to the
poem).

The waves beside them danced – Along with flowers, waves too are gifted with the human
quality to dance.

The words used in the poem like crowd, fluttering, dancing, stretched, heads, company, etc. are
giving the flowers, daffodils human qualities.

Hyperbole: The line “Ten thousand saw I at a glance” is an exaggeration and a hyperbole,
describing the scene of ten thousand daffodils, all together.

They stretched in never-ending line – the flowers are spread everywhere in a line, significance of
vastness is explained.

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds, is applied for the word ‘h’, in the
words – high and hills.

Metaphor: The daffodils represent ‘nature’.

Imagery

The poem paints images of lakes, fields, trees, stars in Ullswater. Wordsworth continuously
praises the daffodils, comparing them to the Milky Way galaxy (in the second stanza), their
dance (in the third stanza) and in the concluding stanza, dreams to join the daffodils in their
dance. Use of colors i.e. white (cloud), green (hills), blue (lake), silver (stars) etc. enhance the
picturesque. The poem starts in pessimism (author’s loneliness) and ends in optimism (pleasure
of watching daffodils). Thus, Wordsworth’s imagination is a major factor of romanticism.

The poem uses descriptive language throughout the stanzas. The poet cannot resist himself from
participating in the dance of the daffodils. The wording is simple and melodious.

The Rain Poem By W. H. Davies

In this poem named ‘Rain’, W. H. Davies has used a symbolic meaning for natural elements in
his poem. He has used metaphorical meanings of upper leaves of the tree which get the raindrops
and quench their thirst first. Afterwards, they pass-on the drops to the lower leaves. These
metaphors mean that the rich get a golden chance first and whatever remains, trickle down to the
poor.

However, the poet is still hopeful that one day there will be equality in the society just like
sunshine which spreads all over the world without difference and equally. This sunshine is alike
for the rich green and poor leaves.

Summary of the Poem – The Rain

The Rain is a beautiful poem written by W.H Davies who is a great admirer of nature. The poem
describes symbolically the natural occurrence of rain. Rain falls on top of the dense foliage.
These thick leaves drink the rainwater first, then pass it to the lower thin leaves, drop by drop.
The top thick leaves represent wealthy people who receive the majority of the blessings but give
very little alms to the poor. Raindrops hitting the thick leaves of a tree create soft music. It makes
the poet happy. The poet claims in the second stanza that when the rain stops, the sun will
emerge from the clouds. It will light up everything, even the dark round raindrops. It will
illuminate everything, including the dark round drops of rain. Its light will be evenly distributed
throughout the room. This will result in a lovely and pleasant scene. Here, the poet wishes for the
day when the painful disparities between rich and poor will be eliminated. Peace and equality
will prevail in society.

Analysis of The Rain

The poem is about beautiful natural phenomena (happening/ occurrence) of rain.It shows the
rainwater collecting at the top of the tree and then falling on the leaves below drop by drop.

He has shown the two types of leave – the leaves on to of the tree and those at the bottom of the
tree.

Tree symbolizes a society. Leaves of top of the tree which are rich leaves symbolize the rich
people while the bottom leaves stand for the deprived segment of society.

The poem describes the rich getting the opportunities first and then pass on the opportunities to
the poor.

Falling droplets produce a melodious sound. This sound is the sound of happiness that the
deprived ones get when they see an opportunity to fulfil their needs.

The poem shows a disparity/difference in the lives of the poor and the blessed ones. The poet
hopes for the sun to shine bright and fill every darkest corner of the tree, meaning he wants
everyone in the society to get equal opportunities. The poet thinks it would promote harmony in
the society.

Theme

The rich in society get all the opportunities first and after fulfilling their need, what remains is
passed on to the less privileged class slowly- one after the other. An ideal society is one where
the rich and the poor get equal opportunities to benefit from.

Imagery

• Visual Imagery

❑ Sun comes out, rain shall stop,

wonderous light, each dark, round drop,

sun shines bright, lovely sight.

• Auditory Imagery

❑ I hear leaves drinking rain, I hear rich

leaves on the top,Tis a sweet noise to hear.

Rhyming Scheme and Oxymoron

• STANZA 1: abcbdd

• STANZA 2: ababdd

➢OXYMORON (using terms that cannot be used with each other e.g. plastic glass, living death)

A sweet noise.