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   mrs-campbell Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   In the first stanza of "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," Wordsworth puts himself in the place of a cloud, and states that he (the cloud) "wandered lonely...o'er vales and hills" and then down below him, saw an entire "crowd" of daffodils.  Simply put, a cloud is wandering, or floating over some hills, when it comes upon a field filled with daffodils.  It is a pretty straightforward stanza, and sets up the rest of the poem.

   Wordsworth uses personification to compare the daffodils to a "crowd".  Personification is where you give inanimate objects human-like traits, and daffodils can't crowd together like humans can.  Crowding implies action and choice.  He continues with personification when he says that the daffodils are "dancing" in the breeze; only humans can dance, so he is personfying the daffodils there.  Check out the last line of the second stanza also, where the flowers are "tossing their heads in a sprightly dance."  This too is personification, and that continues throughout the entire poem, so watch for it.

   Wordsworth also uses a simile in the poem (comparing two things using like or as); the first line of stanza two has him saying the flowers are "continuous as the stars that shine."  Later, he uses a metaphor when he compares the flowers to being at the edge of a bay, jumping and jostling on the "waves" of the wind.

   Those are just a few techniques in the poem; I hope that those thoughs help.  Good luck!

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/wandered-lonely-cloud-salem/wandere...

   http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud/

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   Posted by mrs-campbell on Thursday May 21, 2009 at 6:42 PM