An Analysis of Word Choice in Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Alexis Paige Lyda College

William Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” epitomizes the constancy of nature and the companionship to mankind that it provides. Wordsworth uses daffodils as a source of companionship for the lonely and wandering speaker, a poet. By comparing and contrasting daffodils with other aspects of the natural world, Wordsworth glorifies the relationship between nature and the speaker himself. Wordsworth uses the connotation of words, imagery and adjectives, as well as similes and metaphors, to convey the significance of the speaker’s relationship with nature and nature’s immortality.

The first stanza, lines one through six, focuses on introducing the speaker as he compares himself to a wondering cloud and highlights the speaker’s initial observations of the natural world during his experience of feeling like a cloud. The speaker compares himself to a floating cloud, emphasizing the solemn loneliness he feels. The rest of the stanza also creates contrast with the brooding first line, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (l. 1). In line three, Wordsworth uses the word “crowd” (l. 3) to contrast with “lonely” (l. 1). Further in the first stanza, Wordsworth uses elements of nature and words with a lilting connotation such as “...