A Critical View on William Wordsworth’s poem “The Daffodils”

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (Photo credit: katerha)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

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.

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.

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:

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.

Deutsch: William Wordsworth 1770-1850 englischer Poet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All critics believe when they come to study this poem that Wordsworth is describing the flowers. Conventional criticism believe that while he was walking, he came to a bunch of daffodils. They believe that the poem is nothing more than a description. However, I believe that Wordsworth did not meet the daffodils when he wrote this poem, a good poet doesn’t need to see the daffodils to write about them.

In his “Preface to Lyrical Ballad” he says that a poet is not in need for external stimulus so that he could write a poem. This means that whenever we meet a poem, we shouldn’t understand that the poem is the product of a certain definite occasion. Wordsworth may have seen but also he could write the poem even if he didn’t see the daffodils. He can write with or without a stimulus. Seeing the daffodils or not is an external factor and shouldn’t be considered in evaluating the poem. This has nothing with the evaluation of the poem. The first impression about the title is that the first lines would be about the daffodils. In this case it will appear that Wordsworth is describing the daffodils. This is not the function of poetry because Wordsworth say that poetry is the “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected at tranquility”. So, the lines are not about the daffodils, and even if they are, the poet is not reproducing nature. The purpose of poetry is never to imitate nature, because if it is an imitation, then it wouldn’t be poetry according to Wordsworth. This is what is conveyed in his preface. “Poetry has no purpose, if there is a purpose, it should be a worthy one”. There are two contradictory cases, either poetry has a purpose or not. If poetry has a purpose, then Wordsworth would be describing, but as proved in the lines, he is not describing the flowers. The worthy purpose is not describing the daffodils, so there is another story behind the title.                                              Continue Reading: Romantic Era: A Critical View on William Wordsworth’s poem “The Daffodils”