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.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“My Heart Leaps Up” by William Wordsworth (1802)
This short lyric was also written at Dove Cottage, around the same time that Wordsworth took his famous walk and saw the daffodils with Dorothy. It is also known by an alternative title, “Rainbow.” Like “Daffodils,” it ties nature together with the speaker’s inner thoughts. Again, a natural object is looked at with awe, causing a reaction within the speaker, whose “heart leaps up when I behold / a rainbow in the sky” (Lines 1-2). As in “Daffodils,” there is a spiritual component, as the speaker hopes for their “days to be / Bound to each by natural piety” (Lines 8-9). Additionally, Wordsworth shows gratitude for the natural object—in this case, the rainbow—which he can recollect in order to inspire awe from day to day.
“The World Is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth (1802)
In this sonnet, also published in 1807’s Poems, in Two Volumes, the speaker bemoans industrialization and feels that in “[g]etting and spending, we lay waste our powers” (Line 2). Instead of appreciating nature, they note “we have given our hearts away” (Line 4) to machines and money. This is followed by images of a personified Nature’s dismay, and her gathering up of her forces like “sleeping flowers” (Line 7). Here, as in “Daffodils,” we see Nature having power, but in a more distraught way. As in “Daffodils,” the speaker is near water, and, embracing their “Pagan” (Line 10) side, longs to see Greek gods rising from the ocean. Here, humanity’s lack of appreciation for nature creates a painful pensiveness, while in “Daffodils,” that pensiveness is given release by the image of the happy daffodils.
“Composed by the Side of Grasmere Lake” by William Wordsworth (1807)
This is a sonnet that first appeared in The Waggoner in 1819 but was composed much earlier. Originally called “Eve’s lingering clouds,” it was revised later and given its new title. It revisits sentiments that are contained in “Daffodils” and “The World Is Too Much With Us.” Here, the speaker notes the beauty of Grasmere Lake, seeing the reflection of the evening’s clouds and stars in its waters. As in “The World Is Too Much With Us,” the speaker worries about the ”groaning earth” (Line 7), weary of its “incessant wars” (Line 8). But, much as in “Daffodils,” when the lonely poet sees the dancing flowers, the speaker here is comforted by the beauty of the surrounding natural phenomena. A personified Nature urges them to “be thankful” (Line 13) because despite the chaos of the world at large, “tranquility is here” (Line 14). Here again, Nature is not just beautiful, but a balm for the soul.
Further Literary Resources
“The Preface to Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth (1800).
In his detailing of the purpose of Romantic poetry, Wordsworth discusses what he considers to be essential to the writing of good poetry. This includes using common situations and people as his subject, writing in spare, everyday diction, and writing true expression of feeling. The driving force of poetry, however, is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” that were "recollected in tranquility," an idea he elaborates on in “Daffodils.” Wordsworth leans toward the philosophical in the “Preface” in much the same way he comments on the necessity of “the inward eye / that is the bliss of solitude” (Lines 21-22).
“The Wordsworths and the Cult of Nature” by Pamela Woof (2011)
Woof discusses how Wordsworth’s relationship with the natural world was a powerful one and that in “times of ‘dereliction and dismay,’” it allowed him to “despair not of [human] nature.” Woof notes that Dorothy Wordsworth approached nature differently, as an observer. While she humanized nature, she didn’t necessarily see it as an inner catalyst the way William did. Woof quotes from Dorothy’s journal of April 15, 1802, about seeing the “wild daffodils by Ullswater.” Woof then explains that William does not individuate the daffodils as Dorothy did, but rather views them as a “a crowd, a host, a unity.” He “presents the mind's power to give to that scene, generalised and simplified over time, a permanence and a visionary quality.” Woof is a noted scholar who has been the president of the Wordsworth Trust.
“The Folklore of Narcissus” by Anthony Dweck (2002)
At the beginning of his chapter in the book Narcissus and Daffodil, edited by Gordon R. Hanks (2002), Dweck discusses the popularity of Wordsworth’s poem. He then goes on to detail the multiple legends that have sprouted up around the daffodil, including that of Narcissus. He also talks of William Shakespeare’s Perdita recounting the tale of Proserpine, noting how the latter “dropped the lilies [she’d gathered] in her fear” and “they turned into daffodils as they touched the ground.” Dweck also discusses the origin of the flower’s name, and its many regional variations (such as affodil, cowslip, jonquil, Lenten lily, St. Peter’s Bell, etc.), as well as its meaning in the Victorian language of flowers. Dweck also lists the poisonous parts of the plant and their effect on human physiology. Wordsworth uses many of these allusions in “Daffodils.”
Listen to Poem
Singer/songwriter Dave Matthews’s reading of Wordsworth’s poem appears alongside animation as part of Poetry Foundation’s collaboration with HBO/MAX cinema, A Child’s Garden of Poetry. In 2011, this compilation of classic poems read and animated for children won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program.
Related Titles
By William Wordsworth
