ROMANTIC THEORY

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

By: William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
MYTHOLOGICAL/ARCHETYPAL APPROACH
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE on her course and the winds sped her away from the
dangerous place. If Orpheus had not been there the
The very earliest musicians were the gods. Athena
Argonauts, too, would have left their bones on the
was not distinguished in that line, but she invented
Sirens’ island.
the flute although she never played upon it. Hermes
made the lyre and gave it to Apollo who drew from Where he first met and how he wooed the maiden
it sounds so melodious that when he played in he loved, Eurydice, we are not told, but it is clear
Olympus the gods forgot all else. Hermes also made that no maiden he wanted could have resisted the
the shepherd-pipe for himself and drew enchanting power of his song. They were married, but their joy
music from it. Pan made the pipe of reeds which can was brief. Directly after the wedding, as the bride
sing as sweetly as the nightingale in spring. The walked in a meadow with her bridesmaids, a viper
Muses had no instrument peculiar to them, but their stung her and she died. Orpheus’ grief was
voices were lovely beyond compare. overwhelming. He could not endure it. He
determined to go down to the world of death and try
Next in order came a few mortals so excellent in
to bring Eurydice back. He said to himself, “With
their art that they almost equaled the divine
my song, I will charm Demeter’s daughter, I will
performers. Of these by far the greatest was
charm the Lord of the Dead, Moving their hearts
Orpheus. On his mother’s side he was more than
with my melody. I will bear her away from Hades.”
mortal. He was the son of one of the Muses and a
Thracian prince. His mother gave him the gift of He dared more than any other man ever dared for
music and Thrace where he grew up fostered it. The his love. He took the fearsome journey to the
Thracians were the most musical of the peoples of underworld. There he struck his lyre, and at the
Greece. But Orpheus had no rival there or anywhere sound all that vast multitude were charmed to
except the gods alone. There was no limit to his stillness. The dog Cerberus relaxed his guard; the
power when he played and sang. No one and wheel of Ixion stood motionless; Sisiphus sat at rest
nothing could resist him. Everything animate and upon his stone; Tantalus forgot his thirst; for the
inanimate followed him. He moved the rocks on the first time the faces of the dread goddesses, the
hillside and turned the course of the rivers. Furies, were wet with tears. The ruler of Hades
drew near to listen with his queen.
Little is told about his life before his ill-fated
marriage, for which he is even better known than No one under the spell of his voice could refuse him
for his music, but he went on one famous expedition anything. He drew iron tears down Pluto’s cheek,
and proved himself a most useful member of it. He and made Hell grant what Love did seek.
sailed with Jason on the Argo, and when the heroes
They summoned Eurydice and gave her to him, but
were weary or the rowing was especially difficult he
upon one condition: that he would not look back at
would strike his lyre and they would be aroused to
her as she followed him, until they had reached the
fresh zeal and their oars would smite the sea
upper world. So, the two passed through the great
together in time to the melody. Or if a quarrel
doors of Hades to the path which would take them
threatened he would play so tenderly and soothingly
out of the darkness, climbing up and up. He knew
that the fiercest spirits would grow calm and forget
that she must be just behind him, but he longed
their anger. He saved the heroes, too, from the
unutterably to give one glance to make sure. But
Sirens. When they heard far over the sea singing so
now they were almost there, the blackness was
enchantingly sweet that it drove out all other
turning gray; now he had stepped out joyfully into
thoughts except a desperate longing to hear more,
the daylight. Then he turned to her. It was too soon;
and they turned the ship to the shore where the
she was still in the cavern. He saw her in the dim
Sirens sat, Orpheus snatched up his lyre and played
light, and he held out his arms to clasp her; but on
a tune so clear and ringing that it drowned the sound
the instant she was gone. She had slipped back into
of those lovely fatal voices. The ship was put back
the darkness. All he heard was one faint word,
“Farewell.”
Desperately he tried to rush after her and follow her
down, but he was not allowed. The gods would not
consent to his entering the world of the dead a
second time, while he was still alive. He was forced
to return to the earth alone, in utter desolation. Then
he forsook the company of men. He wandered
through the wild solitudes of Thrace, comfortless
except for his lyre, playing, always playing, and the
rocks and the rivers and the trees heard him gladly,
his only companions. But at last a band of Maenads
came upon him. They were as frenzied as those who
killed Pentheus so horribly. They slew the gentle
musician, tearing him limb from limb, and flung the
severed head into the swift river Hebrus. It was born
along past the river’s mouth on to the Lesbian
shore, nor had it suffered any change from the sea
when the Muses found it and buried it in the
sanctuary of the island. His limbs they gathered and
placed in a tomb at the foot of Mount Olympus, and
there to this day the nightingales sing more sweetly
than anywhere else.