Poem Analysis: Daffodils

Daffodils Essay In the poem Daffodils, by William Wordsworth, Wordsworth explains how nature’s beauty can positively impact our lives and emotions. Wordsworth believed that all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotion. In this poem, he uses an array of different figurative language to show nature’s positive effect. He uses figurative language such as simile, personification, and hyperbole. Not only does he use figurative language, but he uses selective examples of rhythm. In a rhythmic sense, he uses repetition and alliteration. In the poem, Wordsworth is very descriptive in his words to put a clear image in the readers head. In the poem Daffodils, Wordsworth expresses examples of figurative language by using similes. A simile is used to directly compare two unlike things using like or as. A simile is a useful technique to help emphasize a certain characteristic of something or someone. The comparison used in a simile is often unusual. In the first stanza Wordsworth describes himself as “lonely as a cloud” (line 1). Also, in stanza two, Wordsworth describes the daffodils as “continuous as the stars that shine’ (line 1). Both examples of a simile have a direct comparison to nature. When Wordsworth said “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, he was using this to explain how he was walking lonely like a single cloud wandering in the sky. When Wordsworth said “Continuous as the stars that shine” he was using this to explain how many daffodils there were. Another technique that Wordsworth uses to illustrate natures power in the poem Daffodils is personification. Personification is giving non-human things, human-like characteristics. This is a useful technique to help us feel emotion. In the first stanza Wordsworth describes the daffodils as “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (line 6). Also in stanza three, he describes the daffodils dancing beside the powerful waves of the ocean by saying “the out-did