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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) William Wordsworth’s classic poem beginning ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, which was first published in 1807, is a classic work of English Romanticism. Part of its power lies in the symbolism Wordsworth uses. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important symbols from Wordsworth’s ‘daffodils poem’, as it is often known. The Cloud. The memorable opening line to Wordsworth’s poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, immediately helps us to situate the poem within the Romantic movement. Solitude and walking among nature were common features of Romanticism, and feature heavily in the work of the Romantic poets. Indeed, it was estimated that Wordsworth walked some 180,000 miles during his lifetime. That’s perhaps 3,000 miles a year throughout his adult life, or nearly ten miles a day! So Wordsworth did a lot of wandering. Why a cloud, though? A cloud floating high above the land symbolises two things, and imparts two details of Wordsworth’s solitude. First, he is not just on his own, but far from any other human being. A cloud floating far above the ground is similarly removed from all human life. Second, the cloud is floating . This denotes a lack of agency, an aimlessness or a lack of purpose. When we combine this with the fact that Wordsworth describes himself as ‘lonely’, we have a picture of someone who is feeling low as well as lonely: he has lost direction and purpose. Of course, describing himself as ‘lonely as a cloud’ brings in a simile , which is also an example of pathetic fallacy , because clouds cannot feel loneliness. Wordsworth attributes his own loneliness to the cloud. I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills This is when he encounters the ‘crowd’ of daffodils – and the daffodils introduce the next major symbol into the poem. The Stars. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way Here we have another simile: the long line or ‘crowd’ (or ‘host’) of daffodils Wordsworth sees puts him in […]
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