19 pages • 38 minutes read
William WordsworthDaffodils
Nonfiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Romanticism and Recollection in Tranquility
In 1798, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads. In 1800, a second edition of the volume appeared with an expanded introductory section titled “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” which was written by Wordsworth. This preface soon became an outline for a new wave of poetry called Romanticism. One important idea that Wordsworth expounded upon was the idea that poetry should be driven by “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth, William. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” Famous Prefaces. The Harvard Classics, 1909-14). This emotion should be “recollected in tranquility” and “contemplated” until a “kindred [reaction] to that which was before the subject of contemplation […] does itself actually exist in the mind” (“Preface”). “Daffodils” is a thorough example of this idea. The image of the daffodils that the speaker envisions when lonely becomes, during contemplation, a source of “wealth” (Line 18) to be drawn upon when feeling low.
Other important ideas regarding Romanticism laid out in the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” include the following: Poetic form should be unforced but can also be experimental; nature encourages understanding of self and inspires communion; elements of the supernatural, folklore, and magic are beautiful; poetic language and experience should be commonplace; and there are human limits that one can strive to move beyond. These ideas, exemplified in “Daffodils,” remain popular even today and extended Wordsworth’s influence well past his lifetime.
Biographical Context: Dorothy, the Daffodils, and Composition
The impetus for “Daffodils” is well documented. Wordsworth went on a walk with his sister, Dorothy, to Glencoyne Bay a week after his 32nd birthday, and she noted the event in her diary on April 15, 1802. On their trip around the lake, they came across a field of “wild daffodils,” which Dorothy described in a personified fashion, noting how “[s]ome rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake” (Woof, Pamela. “The Wordsworths and the Cult of Nature.” BBC, 2011). Wordsworth’s poem contains imagery similar to that which his sister uses in her diary, including multiple allusions to the daffodils moving like dancers (Lines 6, 12, 24). However, he purposefully removes Dorothy from the narrative of the poem, making the walk seem like a solitary one. This serves to highlight important themes of isolation and contemplation, as well as thoughts of communion regarding the daffodils.
Wordsworth’s initial composition was three stanzas long. He didn’t add the second stanza until 1815. Along with that addition, he changed “dancing daffodils” (Wordsworth, William. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” British Library. 1807. Line 4.) to “golden daffodils” (Line 4, 1815). “Ten thousand” (Line 6, 1807) was replaced with “Fluttering and” (Line 6, 1815) so he could utilize the earlier phrase in the new second stanza. “Laughing company” (Line 10, 1807) also became “jocund company” (Line 16, 1815). These changes add to the specificity of the images in the poem and expand the ideas of movement and multitude.
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By William Wordsworth
