I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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.

William Wordsworth

what literary element would it be a good example of, a simile? and what's it about? I don't get it.

It's a metaphor. He's personifying the cloud. Basically, it's just a poem praising nature. Google the title of the poem, and "criticism". You'll get all kinds of responses.


Les

We have discussed this one before:

<[www.emule.com]>

Wordsworth is one of those romantics that wanted to go "back to nature" in his poetry. He had a huge influence with his use of language: plain language instead of "high style". If you read his preface to "lyrical ballads" things will make more sense. It's a bit long though:

[www.bartleby.com]

"My purpose was to imitate, and, as far as possible, to adopt the very language of men;"

I couldn't get Ian's link to load, dunno why. There are similes in the poem, and one can usually spot a simile because it uses 'as' or 'like'. A metaphor says that something IS something else (your lips are strawberries) whereas a simile says that something is LIKE something else in one respect or another (your lips are as red as strawberries).

So, Wordsworth says he wandered, as lonely as a cloud (wanders). Some have criticized this comparison because one seldom sees singular clouds. They are almost always in large groups, that is.

Another simile is to the milky way. See if you can spot it.