Wordsworth is a powerful poet who is able to provoke emotion and new ideas throughout his poems.

Specifically this is shown in I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud because of the way he writes about how
nature provides more to a person than just beauty.

Interpretation of William Wordsworth’s “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” in the light of

Friedrich Von Schelgel’s theoretical concept of “Imaginative Representation.”

Wordsworth’s poem “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a reflective poem in which he expresses

the joy after taking pleasure of the beauty of the daffodils. He starts off as talking about the
loneliness he faces and vows to remember the scene of daffodils again whenever he falls into
sadness because they induce the feeling of happiness and rejoice in him. This poem was
composed in the early 19th century. It is highly influenced by the Romanticism. This poem raises
the imaginative issues such as human-nature relation, elevation of natural objects, reflective
approach and sublimity/eternity.

Man and nature are shown to be in harmony in the poem. Through the use of reverse
personification, the poet transcends into feeling like a wandering cloud. In further description,
we find the personification of daffodils as if they are humans who “dance” in the breeze. The
concept of unity among the people and the terrestrial objects are found in the theory put forth by
Von Schelgel. He says “Nature and human beings are the proper and immediate subjects of
poetry.” In Romantic poetry, we find the praise of admiration of nature because it brings joy to
the onlookers and bliss during the “solitude” to think upon them.

The poem glorifies, elevates, and raises common-place things. “Daffodils” are compared to the
stars that shine and occupy the cosmos, evoking the scene of the heavenly realm. Just like Von
Schelgel’s theoretical concept, the common place things are written in such a way that it
illuminates the brilliance of the poem. By elevating common things with a much significant and
marvelous object, it makes us understand the “deeper purpose” and the “higher signification” of
the theme that is trying to be conveyed.

Wordsworth wit fully weaves the issue of reflective approach in the poem. He recollects his
feelings, emotions, passion and sentiments of witnessing the magical dance of daffodils in a cool
breeze. He doesn’t immediately jot down the scene and details into a poem, rather he thinks
about the scene for a long time, and decides to reflect and write about what feelings it evoked on
him. In his recollection of the memory of daffodils, he scribbles the poem after much thoughts
and time that has passed. This is related to Von Schelgel’s idea that “what’s written in near and
present” becomes “unpoetical and common” but when there is a gap between the scene and
composition, it brings greatness to the poem.

Sublimity and eternity are also the concepts found in the poem. Here, sublimity is the
communion of natural soul and individual soul. It brings out the magnificence of the poem and
deeply moves the observer. The poet in the poem feels amusement at observing the nature. The
final line of the poem tells that his “heart fills with pleasure” and “it dances with the daffodils”.
It shows the never-ending pleasure that he will forever extract thinking upon the lovely sight of
the daffodils. Von Schelgel’s notion of a truly sensible representation lies on the poem that is
able to embrace, the past, the present and the future, and that’s what brings the eternity in it.
Thus, “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a meditative, reflective, and thoughtful poem written
during the Romantic Era. It has close relation with the ideas, and notions of Von Schelgel who
sought out to form a theory of his own that helps to read poetry in a best way, for no such
effective theory has been made before. This poem reflects the theory of Von Schelgel, for whom,
the poetry is representation of the actual life, and it should be entwine the future and the present,
and lay before us, the mysteries of the internal man.

William Wordsworth Biography

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, on April 7th, 1770. His family
was fairly well-off, but William lost his mother at the age of eight. He spent the following years
in boarding school and then explored various spots in Europe. After becoming intrigued with the
French Revolution, he had an affair with a young French woman, Annette Vallon, who bore him
a daughter, Catherine. William returned to England and lived as a single man with his sister,
Dorothy, until he married Mary Hutchison, who bore him five children.

William became very close with another famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1793,
Wordsworth published Descriptive Sketches, which launched his career. Although Wordsworth
and Coleridge became estranged, they were later reunited. Wordsworth was granted honorary
degrees from both Durham University and Oxford University. Later, he became the Poet
Laureate. He died in 1850, at the age of 80.

Here is the text and an interpretation of 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' - a simple, sweet
poem:

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, (The poet compares himself to a cloud, floating
aimlessly.)
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils; (The hill is covered in hundreds of stunning, yellow daffodils.)
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (The flowers are everywhere! There is a breeze, causing
them to appear as if they are dancing.)

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way, (They seem to be as numerous as the stars!)
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: (Hundreds of daffodils line the edge of the bay.)
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. (Again, the breeze makes it seem as if the flowers are
dancing and tossing their heads.)

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” resulted from an experience of William Wordsworth and his
sister Dorothy while on a walking tour of the Ullswater region in April, 1802. Dorothy wrote of
it at length in her journal; when the poet began to compose the present poem two years later, his
wife Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth contributed what are now lines 21-22, which William
correctly identified as the best two in the poem. While rearranging his works for an 1815
publication, Wordsworth added the second stanza. As it presently stands, this poem is reputed to
be the most anthologized poem in the world.

The “I” of the poem is explicitly a poet (line 15); the implied “you” is therefore explicitly a
reader of a poem. Such clear roles doubtless add to the poem’s illusion of simplicity.

The final stanza confers poetic meaning upon the experience of the previous three descriptive
and narrative stanzas. In his famous preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800),
Wordsworth said that poetry results from “emotion recollected in tranquility,” and in the fourth
stanza the poet, in tranquility, recollects an earlier experience and sees more deeply into it.
Suddenly the poem’s simplicity is complicated by the addition of an explicit program:
Wordsworth is exemplifying his contention that the events and emotions of the first three stanzas
must recur in an altered mode of existence, neither in nature nor in history but in...

Wordsworth’s poem “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a reflective poem in which he expresses

the joy after taking pleasure of the beauty of the daffodils. He starts off as talking about the
loneliness he faces and vows to remember the scene of daffodils again whenever he falls into
sadness because they induce the feeling of happiness and rejoice in him. This poem was
composed in the early 19th century. It is highly influenced by the Romanticism. This poem raises
the imaginative issues such as human-nature relation, elevation of natural objects, reflective
approach and sublimity/eternity.

Man and nature are shown to be in harmony in the poem. Through the use of reverse
personification, the poet transcends into feeling like a wandering cloud. In further description,
we find the personification of daffodils as if they are humans who “dance” in the breeze. The
concept of unity among the people and the terrestrial objects are found in the theory put forth by
Von Schelgel. He says “Nature and human beings are the proper and immediate subjects of
poetry.” In Romantic poetry, we find the praise of admiration of nature because it brings joy to
the onlookers and bliss during the “solitude” to think upon them.

The poem glorifies, elevates, and raises common-place things. “Daffodils” are compared to the
stars that shine and occupy the cosmos, evoking the scene of the heavenly realm. Just like Von
Schelgel’s theoretical concept, the common place things are written in such a way that it
illuminates the brilliance of the poem. By elevating common things with a much significant and
marvelous object, it makes us understand the “deeper purpose” and the “higher signification” of
the theme that is trying to be conveyed.

Wordsworth wit fully weaves the issue of reflective approach in the poem. He recollects his
feelings, emotions, passion and sentiments of witnessing the magical dance of daffodils in a cool
breeze. He doesn’t immediately jot down the scene and details into a poem, rather he thinks
about the scene for a long time, and decides to reflect and write about what feelings it evoked on
him. In his recollection of the memory of daffodils, he scribbles the poem after much thoughts
and time that has passed. This is related to Von Schelgel’s idea that “what’s written in near and
present” becomes “unpoetical and common” but when there is a gap between the scene and
composition, it brings greatness to the poem.
Sublimity and eternity are also the concepts found in the poem. Here, sublimity is the
communion of natural soul and individual soul. It brings out the magnificence of the poem and
deeply moves the observer. The poet in the poem feels amusement at observing the nature. The
final line of the poem tells that his “heart fills with pleasure” and “it dances with the daffodils”.
It shows the never-ending pleasure that he will forever extract thinking upon the lovely sight of
the daffodils. Von Schelgel’s notion of a truly sensible representation lies on the poem that is
able to embrace, the past, the present and the future, and that’s what brings the eternity in it.

Thus, “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a meditative, reflective, and thoughtful poem written
during the Romantic Era. It has close relation with the ideas, and notions of Von Schelgel who
sought out to form a theory of his own that helps to read poetry in a best way, for no such
effective theory has been made before. This poem reflects the theory of Von Schelgel, for whom,
the poetry is representation of the actual life, and it should be entwine the future and the present,
and lay before us, the mysteries of the internal man.