Category: Daffodils

The ability for poets to unravel the truth of our reality and discuss the common ideologies in a familial way provides a sense of relatability. Familial nature of objects and situations is stimulated through the desire to achieve spiritual connections with society to develop greater understandings. Carol Duffy’s free verse poem, ‘Valentine’ unravels the truth through the challenge of the conventional symbol of love by providing a unique perception of love. Duffy’s direct reflection of the progression in society’s perception of love, enables audiences to feel a sense of closure to the idea and encompass the hidden beauty of the world. William Wordsworth’s poem, ‘I wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ provides a new perspective to Duffy’s poem, revealing the process towards finding a passion and meaning through life either through happiness or complacency. These composes cohesively intertwine their ideologies that reveal the hidden truths of our reality and enlighten audiences with a greater perspective of the world.

The poem challenges the stereotypical view of valentine’s gifts as the speaker presents their lover with the metaphorical onion which provides a new meaning to the object. Duffy introduces alternative symbol of love through an onion, metaphorically symbolising “a moon wrapped in brown paper” emphasising romantic connotations that the moon carries. The “moon”symbolises the source of light within individual’s lives where light reflects an individual’s mood and atmosphere. The brown paper is not appealing but on the other hand, the moon is beautiful, and these two objects contrast with each other to show that love should not be judged at first sight. In addition, Duffy furthers this through the sensual image in the personification of the onion to “blind you with tears like a lover”. Duffy’s comparison of the onion to a lover and the way love often highlights the way an onion stings our eyes when individuals cut it, mirroring the potential to be ‘stung’ by one’s heartless actions. Furthermore, through the use of a metaphor, the onion is compared to a jealous lover as the “fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful”. The way they kiss at this point in the relationship would be a mixture of passion and punishment. Duffy further illustrates this through how the “scent will cling to your fingers” when the onion is cut. Therefore, Duffy is able to accentuate the importance of a common vegetable, the onion, and highlight the beauty and symbolic meaning hidden underneath the skin and provides a new meaning to the onion.

Wordsworth, through poetry, underlines the hidden beauty of daffodils, illuminates its importance to him and describes what effect the daffodils had on him. In the second stanza, Wordsworth compare the daffodils to the “continuous…stars…that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way”. The speaker allows the reader to experience the majesty of seeing “ten thousand [stars]…at a glance.” The reader begins to sense that he is not on earth anymore, but rather in a place full of majesty and beauty, maybe in heaven or some other form of the afterlife where there are no more worries and joy and peace are abundant. Wordsworth personifies how the waves “danced” and the daffodils “out-did the sparkling waves in glee” to provide readers a wider understanding of the impact the daffodils has had on the Wordsworth to attributes to them the ability to feel joy and delight. This encompasses the undeniable truth about society and allows audiences to relate and establish a greater foundation towards situations that were once unfamiliar. Wordsworth shifts from a peaceful, joyful tone to a reflective tone. Even though he no longer sees the dancing waves and the golden daffodils, he reveals that he will never forget them when he says, “they flash upon that inward eye”. The speaker reveals that he not only still has the memory of the daffodils, but that he has also kept the memory of how they made him feel. He reveals this when he says, “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils”. This gives the reader the sense that the speaker has either been dreaming about the daffodils, or he has caught a glimpse of heaven which leaves him in a state of happiness as he seemed to find what he had desired for a long time, a place of utopian peace. However, the idea is short lived as he knows that the dream will never become a reality. Wordsworth, views the daffodils as an object that gives a place it’s happiness and peace, thus illuminating this flower and draws our attention to it. Therefore, Wordsworth is able to lift the veil and open our eyes to something we often overlook in a garden and emphasises its importance to him as it brings joy and allows him to escape reality.

Ultimately, poetry significantly unravels the underlying beauty of the word and provides individuals a familial connection with those often deemed unusual. It is through these two poems specifically, that entails the truth of reality and enables audiences to gain greater understandings of the world whilst developing new perspectives.

William Wordsworth was a famous English poet born on April 7 in 1770. He is most known for inventing a new style of poetry alongside his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This was a “… new style of poetry in which nature and the diction of the common man trumped formal, stylized language.” (Smoop). His poems were very much influenced by the Romantic Era. Not only did he write about all of the love going on in his life, but also wrote a fair share about death and his childhood. William’s main goal in his poetry career was to combine emotions, feelings, and most importantly nature which is why he is referred to today as a “Poet of Nature”.

The Romantic era was filled with very moody, deep, and stereotypical poets. “Artists disillusioned with industrialization and urbanization turned to nature for inspiration, valuing emotion over reason and feeling over rationality.” (Shmoop) The intention was to have readers be one with nature and to experience it as if they were surrounded in it as they were reading the material. One of his popular works of literature that really stuck out during this time period was Lyrical Ballads. His purpose of writing this was to get humans to get in touch with their emotions by looking over the the bad, and focusing on the good in people, even in their worst moments. Instead of focusing on an abstract or difficult characters, he chooses simple characters because it is easier to dig into them and take out their feelings. “Such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived…being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions.” (Preface to Lyrical Ballads) Simple people are just that; simple. This means that there is no need for critical thinking in order to figure out what it is going on inside them. There is no extra work needed to get to their emotions. Once achieved, their emotions are pure which will connect with the reader. The goal was to through words, achieve a “’spontaneous overflow of emotion,’ ( Preface to Lyrical Ballads).

William loved to be in tune with nature himself and that is how he found most of his inspiration. He would go outside and be immersed in nature by taking walks outside to basically feel what nature is feeling so it would come out through his poems. This is how he came up with the idea for another one of his famous poems, Daffodils. “The way the speaker attributes his own feelings to parts of nature, shows that he feels one with his surroundings when he is in this place.” (Daffodils Analysis) The poem has a very joyful, cloud-like feeling to it. The poem uses a lot of figurative language to relate humans to what is going on in nature around the author. For example, “wandered lonely as a cloud” and “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. Certain word choice like “fluttering” and “wandered” are used in the poem to create a sense of relaxation and peace. It allows the reader to imagine that they were taking a long walk right alongside William and feeling exactly what he is feeling in this moment. “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.” (Daffodils) William mentioning the stars creates a feeling of the reader being submerged in them and not submerged in the grassy nature anymore. He wanted the readers to feel as though they have changed locations and were not on Earth, but rather right next to the stars in the sky watching them “ dance”. “This stanza not only allows the reader to feel the sense of peace the speaker feels, but also to feel life.” (Daffodils Analysis). Everyone knows that stars are not living like humans but William making them “dance” brings life into the stars allowing the reader to feel a sense of connection. “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.” (Daffodils) In this stanza, William is now referencing the flowers as if they are no longer in his presence; as if they are now a distant memory. This all traces back to his entire purpose of his literature. He wants readers to connect and get in touch with their emotions when reading his poems, therefore he is stating that no matter what state he is in physically or mentally, when he thinks back to the flowers and being in that happy place of his, he becomes calm. He becomes in tune with his emotions and everything is still and at peace.

Some critics were not on board with William’s poems, some did not like them at all. “Francis Jeffrey wrote damning reviews Wordsworth’s poems. Most notoriously, he wrote a Review, beginning with the infamous line ‘This will never do’.” (Responding to Wordsworth: A Critical History) Many people didn’t understand how easy William’s concept actually was. They were expecting something complicated and required a lot of work to truly understand which wasn’t the case here at all. “ He claimed that Wordsworth was arrogant, irresponsible, and ‘silly’; found the moral of Wordsworth’s poem obscure, and objected to his use of diction. He concluded that … Mr Wordsworth … is now manifestly hopeless, and we give him up as altogether incurable, and beyond the power of criticism’.” (Responding to Wordsworth: A Critical History) However, some critics did like William’s works and thought the exact opposite. “William Hazlitt agreed that Wordsworth was not a truly great poet.” (Responding to Wordsworth: A Critical History) The critics who liked his works had a great deal of respect for his works and loved the deep concept.

William Wordsworth was a poet no one will ever forget. He left a big mark on the Romantic era due to his ability to interpret his ideas about love and death in his poems. His idea of captivating and submerging the readers into nature through his use of specific wording and details will forever impact literature.

The concept of this poem is about the speaker’s joy for the beauty of daffodils and what they mean to him and mankind’s relationship to the natural world. Throughout this poem, the speaker is admiring the natural world and its beauty. The themes of this poem are nature and humanity, memory and imagination. The speaker is the symbol for humanity and the daffodils are the symbol of nature. In the poem, humanity is a part of nature and humans having a strong bond with nature creates real and not synthetic human happiness, for example, mobile devices. The speaker uses beautiful natural imagery to encourage the reader to appreciate the beauty of nature and what it has to offer. The speaker appears to be lonely at the beginning of the poem but the presence and sight of the daffodils become ingrained in the speaker’s vivid memories. The cloud is a metaphor for the speaker and in using this metaphor it represents that humanity can be one with nature. Without nature we all of humanity would be lonely, we would be like the cloud this is why the poem has its name. The poem is trying to convince the reader of the positive effects of having an active engagement with nature. In today’s age, this poem is so important because we do not have an active engagement or appreciation for nature, we destroy it and in doing so we are destroying our happiness and replacing it with material possessions.

The form of poetry is lyrical and the rhyme scheme is ABABCC in each stanza throughout the poem and it is spoken in the first person through the speaker recalling their memories of nature.

The whole poem is a recital of the speaker’s memory and requires the reader to have an imagination to truly visualise the speaker’s memory within their mind. If it weren’t for the speaker’s imagination and ability to use poetic techniques to create a picture for others to read, there would be no poem. The speaker looks back on an experience and uses his imagination to turn it into something vivid and different. The personification of the daffodils throughout the poem are used imaginatively, they are said to be “dancing” but they are just being blown by the wind but the activity of dancing seems to evoke a pleasant feeling, it is like the daffodils are alive, living and vivid in the reader’s mind/imagination. The reader then starts to notice life in everything else and in doing so this makes them feel more alive. The speaker’s inward eye is a symbol for or metaphor for their imagination, which they bring up whenever they are in a “vacant or .. pensive mood.” The reader is being taken on the journey of the speaker’s memory and asked to use their imagination.

The speaker shows with his inward eye (imagination) positive effects can occur, he is no longer in a vacant or pensive mood and encourages the reader to use their imagination. By personifying the daffodils with human qualities sadly makes them more important to humans, if we saw plants and animals that way we would not destroy them because in doing so we would be destroying ourselves. Because the speaker has such a strong imagination, they can extend their experience into our minds (the readers). Imagination and nature are essential to human happiness and content. The daffodils in this poem are a symbol of nature’s beauty and the rebirth of the land in springtime.