Daffodils (Summary)

Submitted by:

Ankit Mahato

A6429713003

Daffodils is a poem written by William Wordsworth. This poem describes the enormous amount of joy a simple thing can provide to us. In other words, one may say, search of happiness and peace can be served by mere blossom of nature. It is far more impacting than the short term materialistic happiness. The poet in this poem explains the beauty of daffodils dancing with wind, carefree, innocent and unbound. The poet unfolds the long lasting effect those daffodils have on him.

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.

The poet used to wander on hills isolated from the rest of the world. May be he wants to counter the feeling of outcast or maybe he just want to find a place solitary. Then unexpectedly he found an ocean of golden daffodils between the hills, beside the lake and beneath the trees, dancing around like a carnival with 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 poet compares the daffodils with the stars. Like the stars bloom in the mid of a dark night, likewise the daffodils perish the dullness of the poet’s mind and heart. The poet uses various metaphor to create an essence of that portrait, like “never ending line along the margin of a bay”. He describes the daffodils to be dancing by tossing their heads and the magic that is overflowing by thousands of them is beyond words. He wants to capture the whole scene in his mind.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;

The 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.

The waves of the lake also danced side by side but they remained unnoticed in front of the daffodils. The poet thinks this scene can touch the hearts of even the most introvert people. Even it can bring cheers to a sadist person. The poet wants to gaze the prettiness of the daffodils as long as he could so that he could retain the beauty of it for a long time. Then he thinks can wealth purchase this ceramic allure chronicle? Can wealth satisfy the vast canvas of unsaturated thoughts, like these daffodils do? It can only provide momentary pleasure.

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.

Whenever the poet is depressed, vacant or pensive, he remembers the beautiful sketch which was made by nature on the heart of the hills. All the unpleasant thoughts vanishes away and fills his heart with immense joy and his heart start dancing like the daffodils.