February 01, 2011

Analysis on Poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)


A.    Poem
Daffodils (1804)

(1)             I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud                                / klaƱd /
(2)             That floats on high o’er vales and hills                    / hıls /
(3)             When all at once I saw a crowd,                            / kraƱd /
(4)             A host, of golden daffodils                                    / dæfadıls /
(5)             Beside the lake, beneath the trees                         / tri:z /
(6)             Fluttering and  dancing in the breeze.                     / bri:z /

(7)             Continuous as the stars that shine                          / ʃaın /
(8)             And twinkle on the Milky Way,                                / weı /
(9)             They stretch’d in never ending line                          / laın /
(10)           Along the margin of a bay:                                      / beı /
(11)           Ten thousand saw I at a glance,                              / gla:ns /
(12)           Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.                      / da:ns /

(13)           The waves beside them danced; but they                   / ðeı /
(14)           Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;                          / gli: /
(15)           A poet could not but be gay                                     / geı /
(16)           In such a jocund company                                       / kᴧmpəni /
(17)           I gazed -- and gazed – but little thought                    / ϴϽ:t /
(18)           What wealth the show to me had brought:                 / brϽ:t /

(19)           For oft, when on my couch I lie                                 / laı /
(20)           In vacant or in pensive mood                                    / mu:d /
(21)           They flash upon that inward eye                                / aı /
(22)           Which is the bliss of solitude;                                    / sɒlıtju:d /
(23)           And then my heart with pleasure fills,                         / fıls /
(24)           And dances with the daffodils.                                  / dæfadıls /


B.     Analysis
1.  Devices in Poetry
“Device in poetry is a technique or tool used in poetry, which helps to improve the quality of poetry and is not applied in any other form of writing.”

No
Device
Device in “Daffodils”
Explanation
1
Contraction

(1) WANDER’D
(2) o’ver
(9) stretch’d
WANDERED
over
stretched
2
Inversion
(11) Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
(18) What wealth the show to me had brought:
(19) For oft, when on my couch I lie
(23) And then my heart with pleasure fills,
At a glance, I saw ten thousand,
What wealth the show had brought to me:
For often, When I lie on my coach
And then my heart fills with pleasure,
3
Omission/Ellipsis
(6) Fluttering and  dancing in the breeze.
(7) Continuous as the stars that shine
(12) Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
(15) A poet could not but be gay
(They were) fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
(They were) continuous as the stars that shine
(Which were) tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
A poet could not (do) but be gay
4
The use of archaic words
(19) oft
often
5
End-stopped line and run-on line
End-stopped line: -
Run-on line: all (1) – (24)
-


2.  Element: Subject and Theme
“Subject is a central concept that is developed indirectly (through symbol); A theme is a central concept that is developed directly (without symbol)”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
1
Subject

-
There is no symbol.
2
Theme
The beauty and the joy of daffodils
-

3.  Element: Message
“Message is the basic idea that the poet wants to convey in a poem through the theme.”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
3
Message

1…Just fill your empty mood with pleasure given by the memory of natural beauty.


2… Just be happy for your surroundings if lonely, just like daffodils.



3…Learn from the nature.
1…Implicitly stated in the fourth stanza. “(20) In vacant or in pensive mood | (21) They flash upon that inward eye | (23) And then my heart with pleasure fills,”
2… Implicitly stated in the first stanza. “(5) Beside the lake, beneath the trees | (6) Fluttering and  dancing in the breeze.” Daffodils are always happy for the existence of the lake, the trees, and the breeze.
3… Implicitly stated in the third stanza. “(13) The waves beside them danced | (15) A poet could not but be gay” Daffodils bring bliss to their surroundings.

4.  Element: Tone
“Tone is the feeling/nuances/general situation that a poem creates”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
4
Tone

1…Impressive


2…Joyful
1…The author is impressed at the beauty of daffodils and considers them “(18) wealth” that creates “(22) bliss”
2…The author uses some connotations of joy such as “(12) sprightly”, “(14) glee”, “(15) gay”, “(16) jocund”, “(22) bliss” and “(23) pleasure”

5.  Speaker
“Speaker is the person who speaks in a poem.”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
5
Speaker

First speaker/ Autobiographical speaker
The author uses I and my. He wants to tell his experience directly to the readers.

6.  Setting of Place and Setting of Time
“Setting of place is the place in which the poem is located (where it is set); Setting of time is the historical period of time in which the poem is set (when it is set)”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
6
Setting of Place

Exterior setting:
1…a road near to a lake and a daffodil field that are positioned lower than the road
 2…a couch

1…“(1) I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud | (5) Beside the lake, beneath the trees, | Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
2…“(19) For oft, when on my couch I lie”
7
Setting of Time

1…on a sunny, breezy day





2…in the spring
1…“(4) A host, of golden daffodils;” Yellow daffodils are considered golden under the sunlight.
“(6) Fluttering and  dancing in the breeze.” Daffodils look like dancing because of the breeze.
2…Blooming flowers, breeze and vivid sunlight are the characteristics of the spring.

7.  Rhyme (Type and Patter)
“Rhyme is the repetition of sounds”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
8
Rhyme: Type
1…Based on the fullness: Full rhyme


2…Based on the position: End rhyme
1…Some vowels following consonants in open syllables are identical, some vowels and any following consonants in closed syllables are identical.
2…Rhyme is positioned at the end of lines.
9
Rhyme: Pattern
Stanza 1: ABABCC
Stanza 2: DEDEFF
Stanza 3: EGEGHH
Stanza 4: IJIJBB


8.  Rhythm
“Rhythm is the arrangement or pattern of accented/stressed and unaccented/unstressed syllables”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
10
Rhythm
Metrical pattern: iambic tetrameter
Each line has four iambs.

9.  Figures of Speech
“Figures of Speech is a deviation from what speakers of a language apprehend as the ordinary, or standard, significance or sequence of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect.”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
11
Figures of Speech
1…Asyndeton
(5) Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

2…Simile
 (1) I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud | That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
(7) Continuous as the stars that shine | And twinkle on the Milky Way,
(16) In such a jocund company
3…Personification
(6) Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
(7) They stretch’d in never ending line
(12) Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
(13) The waves beside them danced; but they
(14) Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
(24) And dances with the daffodils.
4…Epizuexis
(5) Beside the lake, beneath the trees
(17) I gazed -- and gazed – but little thought
5…Epistrophe
(4) A host, of golden daffodils
(24) And dances with the daffodils.
6… Imagery: Visual
(3) When all at once I saw a crowd
(11) Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
1…Several parallel and consecutive forms (words, phrases, or clauses) which are not connected with any conjunction.
2…An direct comparison, in which something is compared to something else using such words as: like, as, seem, etc.




3…A depiction of an inanimate object, plant, or animal/non-human or lifeless things as a human being.







4…Consecutive repetition in a line.



5…Repetition at the end of lines



6…An expression that refers to any sensory experience, in this case: visual sensory.



10.  Form of Stanza
“Stanza is a group of lines in a poem and separated from other stanzas by providing more spaces. A stanza can also be of any length; it may consist of a single line or more.”

No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
11
Stanza: Form
Closed-form poem


Sestet
It has the same number of lines in each stanza – 6 lines, a regular sum and a regular rhyme pattern ABABCC, etc.
It contains six lines for each stanza

11.  Type of Poem
No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
12
Type of Poem
Lyric poem (ode)
It expresses the poet’s feeling.

12.  Genre
No
Element
Element in “Daffodils”
Explanation
13
Genre
Romanticism
It expresses the beauty of nature and uses the elements of nature such as “(1) cloud”, “(2) vales”, “(2) hills”, “(4) daffodils”, “(5) lake”, “(5) trees”, “(6) breeze”, “(7) stars”, “(8) the Milky Way”, “(10) bay” and “(13) waves”.

13.  Background of Author
William Wordsworth is a well-known romantic poet who believed in conveying simple and creative expressions through his poems. In English literature, Wordsworth was one of the pioneers in the development of the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking. 

Nature was a guiding force to the romantic poet. Romanticism began in the mid-1700's as a rebellion against the principles of classicism. It promoted subjectivity, emotional effusiveness, and freedom of expression.

14. Background of Poem
William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a lyric poem focusing on the poet's response to the beauty of nature. The final version of the poem was first published in Collected Poems in 1815. An earlier version was published in Poems in Two Volumes in 1807 as a three-stanza poem. The final version has four stanzas. Wordsworth wrote the earlier version in 1804, two years after seeing the lakeside daffodils that inspired the poem.


15.  Background of Setting
The poem recaptures a moment on April 15, 1802, when Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, were walking near a lake at Grasmere, Cumbria County, England, and came upon a shore lined with daffodils. 

Grasmere is in northwestern England's Lake District, between Morecambe Bay on the south and the Solway Firth on the north. The Lake District extends twenty-five miles east to west and thirty miles north to south. Among its attractions are England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike (3,210 feet), and Esthwaite Lake and other picturesque meres radiating outward, like the points of a star, from the town of Grasmere. The Lake District was the haunt of not only Wordsworth but also poets Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas De Quincey.

Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, moved to a cottage at Grasmere in 1799. After Wordsworth married in 1802, his wife resided there also. The family continued to live there until 1813. Dorothy, who kept a diary, described what she and her brother saw on that April day in 1802:
“When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore & that the little colony had so sprung up— But as we went along there were more & yet more & at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road . . . [S]ome rested their heads on [mossy] stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity & life of that one busy highway... —Rain came on, we were wet.”

16.  Bibliography
 Cummings, Michael J., “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”. Cummings Study Guide. 18 April 2013.


Thanks to my discussion group:
Lili
Wanelga F. Chasel
M. Izmir Alkatiri

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redbubble.com

Ditulis Oleh : Lilik Wijayawati // 12:00 AM
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