Lesson about the poem "I wandered lonely as a cloud" by William Wordsworth

"A wandered lonely as a cloud" is a Romantic poem written by William Wordsworth. The Title conveys some of the most important concepts of the Romanticism. As a matter of fact the word "lonely" expresses the idea of solitude, which was the condition of the human being in the Romantic age, when he felt refused from nature. In addition to this the verb "to wander" expresses the idea of a man who walks without a definite direction, so he doesn't even know where he's going and why he's living.

The poet walks in a countryside, which was the most important place in Romanticism. He sees a lot of daffodils everywhere and he feels joyful smelling their perfume. They make the poet be happy and in the end, his heart dances with the flowers which flutter with the wind.  The poet communicates to the reader the wealth of the daffodils through the language of senses and impressions, in particular sight and hearing.  The poet is interested on the subjective personal emotions that he felt in front of nature.

The poet introduces the scene with pleasure and he talks about the flowers as they are a group of stars. This gives importance to the precious idea of the emotional reaction the poet felt in front of the scene. On one side, the opposition between the multitude of the flowers and the solitude of the man conveys an idea of important man, unique in the scene. This can be explained also with the use of language that often recalls the first person subject; on the other side, this opposition makes the reader reflect about the smallness of the man in front of the nature. This is an important Romantic idea that poses man on a second level, celebrating the power of nature and its effect on the man. The man is attracted by nature but he is condemned not to be in harmony with it. So it makes man be lonely, as the title of the poem says.  So now, the poem is not to be considered as a description of the daffodils, but it is a reflection of romantic human being in relation with nature, through some natural elements and the effect they provoke on man's soul.