A hand-written manuscript of the poem (1804). British Library Add. MS 47864[1]
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.
– William Wordsworth (1802)
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also sometimes called "Daffodils"[2]) is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth.[3] It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 that included himself, his younger sister Dorothy and a "long belt" of daffodils.[4] Written in 1804,[5] this 24 line lyric was first published in 1807 in Poems, in Two Volumes, and revised in 1815.[6]
In a poll conducted in 1995 by the BBC Radio 4 Bookworm programme to determine the nation's favourite poems, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud came fifth.[7] Often anthologised, it is now seen as a classic of English Romantic poetry, although Poems, in Two Volumes was poorly reviewed by Wordsworth's contemporaries.
^Wordsworth, William. "I wandered lonely as a cloud". British Library Images Online. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
^"William Wordsworth (1770–1850): I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud". Representative Poetry Online. 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
^BBC. "Historic figures: William Wordsworth (1770–1850)". Retrieved 26 December 2009.
^Radford, Tim (15 April 2011). "Weatherwatch: Dorothy Wordsworth on daffodils". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
^Moorman (1965) p. 27
^Magill, Frank Northen; Wilson, John; Jason, Philip K. (1992). Masterplots II. (Goa-Lov, Vol. 3). Salem Press. p. 1040. ISBN 978-0-89356-587-9.
^Gryff Rhys Jones, ed. (1996). The Nation's Favourite Poems. BBC Books. p. 17. ISBN 0563387823.
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