"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is one of the most famous and best-loved poems written in the English language. It was composed by Romantic poet William Wordsworth around 1804, though he subsequently revised it—the final and most familiar version of the poem was published in 1815. The poem is based on one of Wordsworth's own walks in the countryside of England's Lake District. During this walk, he and his sister encountered a long strip of daffodils. In the poem, these daffodils have a long-lasting effect on the speaker, firstly in the immediate impression they make and secondly in the way that the image of them comes back to the speaker's mind later on. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is a quintessentially Romantic poem, bringing together key ideas about imagination, humanity and the natural world.
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The Full Text of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
1I wandered lonely as a cloud
2That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
3When all at once I saw a crowd,
4A host, of golden daffodils;
5Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
6Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
7Continuous as the stars that shine
8And twinkle on the milky way,
9They stretched in never-ending line
10Along the margin of a bay:
11Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
12Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
13The waves beside them danced; but they
14Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
15A poet could not but be gay,
16In such a jocund company:
17I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
18What wealth the show to me had brought:
19For oft, when on my couch I lie
20In vacant or in pensive mood,
21They flash upon that inward eye
22Which is the bliss of solitude;
23And then my heart with pleasure fills,
24And dances with the daffodils.
The Full Text of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
1I wandered lonely as a cloud
2That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
3When all at once I saw a crowd,
4A host, of golden daffodils;
5Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
6Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
7Continuous as the stars that shine
8And twinkle on the milky way,
9They stretched in never-ending line
10Along the margin of a bay:
11Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
12Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
13The waves beside them danced; but they
14Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
15A poet could not but be gay,
16In such a jocund company:
17I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
18What wealth the show to me had brought:
19For oft, when on my couch I lie
20In vacant or in pensive mood,
21They flash upon that inward eye
22Which is the bliss of solitude;
23And then my heart with pleasure fills,
24And dances with the daffodils.
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Summary
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Themes
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Nature and Humanity
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Memory and Imagination
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
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Lines 1-2
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, -
Lines 3-6
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. -
Lines 7-12
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. -
Lines 13-18
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: -
Lines 19-24
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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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Symbols
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Daffodils
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Personification
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Simile
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Alliteration
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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Sibilance
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Polysyndeton
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Hyperbole
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- o'er
- vales
- host
- daffodils
- sprightly
- glee
- gay
- jocund
- oft
- vacant
- inward eye
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Speaker
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“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
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More “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Resources
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External Resources
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A Reading — The poem read by Jeremy Irons.
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Daffodils at Ullswater — Photos and video of daffodils at the actual location mentioned in Wordsworth's account of the walk.
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Nature and Wordsworth — A short BBC clip about Wordsworth's early relationship with nature.
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Biography and other poems — A useful resource from TPoetry Foundation.
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Preface to Lyrical Ballads — The preface to Coleridge and Wordsworth's 1798 book, Lyrical Ballads.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Wordsworth
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