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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Essay Example

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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Essay Example
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a lyric poem focusing on the poet's response to the beauty of nature. The description of the process, which the speaker goes through, is represented by a natural scene where the speaker, plants and the surroundings become united. The poem is written in a figurative language, combining images, similes and personification. The speaker, at the beginning of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, views himself as a wandering cloud much in a state of knowing disconnection. “I wandered as lonely as a cloud / that floats on high o'er vales and hills” (Wordsworth, 1/2). As clouds appear to be lonely, fluttering around wherever the wind may take them without any sense of urgency or call to a certain destination, the speaker’s thought processes are just that of a cloud.
As the speaker progresses with his voyage of worldly detachment he sees a field of daffodils. “A host, of golden daffodils/Beside the lake, beneath the trees/Fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (Wordsworth, 1/4,5,6). The daffodils are much more than flowers to the speaker. They are a symbol of natural beauty and, more importantly, symbolize living a life as rich in experience and sensation as would make a life worth living. They represent, in their light-hearted dance, the joy and happiness of living an adoring and fulfilling life, embracing it for every moment of happiness it may bring. The daffodils help him to forget that he doesn't have anyone and is depressed. "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” (Wordsworth, 2/9-12). The speaker is taken aback that these beautiful golden daffodils seem to be so pleased to see him that they are “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (Wordsworth, 2/12). The speaker is no longer alone in the world and the cloud of depression and loneliness begins to lift because he has found an

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