I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Photograph Details: Nikon D7000 Focal length 55mm ISO-320 exp: 1/25000 f5.6

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also commonly known as "Daffodils" or "The Daffodils") is a poem by William Wordsworth.

It was inspired by an event on April 15, 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a "long belt" ofdaffodils. Written in 1804, it was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, and a revised version, the more commonly known, was released in 1815. It consists of four six-line stanzas, in iambic tetrameter and an ABABCC rhyme scheme.

It is usually considered Wordsworth's most famous work. In the "Nation's Favourite Poems", a poll carried out by the BBC's Bookworm, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" came fifth. Well known, and often anthologised, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is commonly seen as a classic of English romanticism within poetry, although the original version was poorly reviewed by Wordsworth's contemporaries.

Below is the original version of the poem

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 dancing Daffodils;
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: --
A poet could not but be gay
In such a laughing 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.


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