William Wordsworth

He was born in 1770, in Cumberland the English Lake District

and spent most of his life there.

He was educated in Cambridge.
The French revolution filled him with enthusiasm for

democratic ideals, but its brutal developments brought him a

nervous breakdown.
In 1795 he moved to Somerset to be near Coleridge and their

friendship became very important for the development of the

English Romanticism. They produced a collection of poems
called Lyrical Ballads (1789).

William Wordsworth
In 1802 he married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. In

1843 he was made Poet Laureate (he was considered the

most important English poet).
The last years of his life were marked by the growing

conservatism of his political views and the decline of his

creative powers.
He continued to write poems until his death in 1850

Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud A
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
B
When all at once I saw a crowd, A
A host, of golden daffodils; B
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, C
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. C
Continuous as the stars that shine A
And twinkle on the Milky Way, B
They stretched in never-ending line A
Along the margin of a bay: B
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, C
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
C

The waves beside them danced, but they

A
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: B
A Poet could not but be gay, A
In such a jocund company: B
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought C
What wealth the show to me had
brought: C
For oft, when on my couch I lie A
In vacant or in pensive mood, B
They flash upon that inward eye A
Which is the bliss of solitude; B
And then my heart with pleasure fills, C
And dances with the daffodils. C

Sound pattern
Daffodils" has a fairly simple form that fits its simple and

folksy theme and language. It consists of four stanzas with

six lines each, for a total of 24 lines, and the rhyme scheme
is also simple: ABABCC.
In the first three verses the verbs are in past tense
(wandered, saw, stretched, could not etc.) which means that
the poet didnt write the poem while admiring the flowers
but later, when he recalled the scene and reflected on it.
The inversion of the normal word order, which is accepted
as poetic license, in the whole poem makes the tone more
emphatic.
The language is clear and doesnt have archaic forms,
except for the use of oft, which is the poetic form of often.

Literary Devices
Personification: in the whole poem Wordsworth personifies

the daffodils: crowd (line 3), dancing (line 6) etc.

Simile: lonely as a cloud (line 1), continuous as stars (line

7)
Repetition: Wordsworth in the line 17 repeats the word

gazed
to emphasize the tone.
Enjambement: line 13-14
Hyperbole: Ten thousand saw I at a glance (line 11)

Meaning
This poem, written in 1804 and published in 1807, recounts the

experience of a walk the poet went for near their home in the Lake
District. It was inspired by the sight of a field full of golden daffodils
waving in the wind.
The key of the poem is joy, as we can see from the many words
which express pleasure and delight: in fact the daffodils are
golden, waving in a sprightly dance and outdoing the waves in
glee: the sight of them fills the poets heart with pleasure .
Yet Wordsworth is not interested in the flowers, but in the way they
affect him. He doesnt realize the delight that the flowers give to
him at the moment but only later, when memory brings back the
scene. It is clear that the daffodils have a metaphorical meaning.
They may represent the voice of nature, which cant be heard if not
in solitude, when our spirit develops a visionary power and we
return to the enchanted unity with nature we knew in childhood.

 It is divided into four stanzas which correspond to the various

moods of the poet. Stanza 1: setting and shock at the scene;

Stanza 2: Description of the flowers; Stanza 3: Relationship
between the flowers and the poet, the emotions of the poet (in the
moment of the vision); Stanza 4: Emotion recollected in tranquility,
consequences of the experience.
In stanza 4 the poet suggests the perfect state of mind we should
be in to hear the voice of nature; he says we should be in a sort of
inner emptiness almost like that of the mystics when they enter
into communion with God. This state of mind favors the poets
inner perception, which he calls inward eye.
In his poetry he talks about the relationship between man and
nature. One of the most considered concepts in Wordsworth is the
idea that man and nature are inseparable: man exists not outside
the natural world but as an active participant in it.
Nature comforts man in sorrow, it is a source of pleasure and joy, it
teaches man to love and to act in a moral way.

Similar poem
Per ogni luogo prodighi, per ogni
tempo, te stessa, e chiami a te leggiera
Prima che pur la primula, che i crochi, ogni passante per la via, che sogni
la primavera.

Giovanni Pascoli Lederella

che le viole mammole, fiorisci

tu, qua e l, veronica, coi pochi
petali lisci.

Ti guarda e passa. Tu non sei viola!

Di sempre sei! Non hai virt che
piaccia!
Su le covette, sotto lolmo e il pioppo, La gente passa, e tutti una parola
vai serpeggiando, e sfoggi la tua
gettano: Erbaccia!

veste
povera s, sbiadita s, ma, troppo,
vedi, celeste.

Tu non odori, o misera, e non frutti;

n buona mai ti si cred, n bella
mai ti si disse, pur tra i piedi a tutti,
sempre, ederella!

Just like Wordsworth, Pascoli uses the personification to show the ivys
actions as if it was human: it talks (line 10) and shows its garment
(line 6).

Look at trees, look at birds

Look at clouds, stars
If you have eyes
You will see that the whole existence
Is full of joy.
Every thing is pure happiness
Trees are happy without a reason
They will never be presidents
They will never be rich.
Look at flowers
It is incredible how happy they are
Without a reason.
Nature is heaven.
Ludovica Ponte VA

Free is not the hand that destroys

But the one that builds.
The mind that creates
Is not the one that plots.
The voice that talks to the sky
Is not the one that curses.
Gemma Aymone VA

I lived, barely
Immersed inside the present
I held my hand to a shy child
The past, still too young.
We stopped, staring
At the road we walked
And, laughing, we ran away.
He, the future, was hidden,
Lost inside the fog.
I couldnt see him.
I didnt look for him.
I lived, barely
Playing with a watch.
Elena Liberatore VA