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I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud Essay

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William Wordsworth and his not so Spontaneous Overflow of Powerful Changes in “I wandered lonely as a cloud.”

William Wordsworth wrote that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity” (Owen, 329). Wordsworth revised “I wandered lonely as a cloud” after a period of reflection and recollection on the scene of daffodils during a time that placed importance on nature, reflection and imagination. His revised version of “I wandered lonely as a cloud” should be considered the authoritative version as it is a better and more vivid description of the scene of daffodils and reflects the literary movement at the time, i.e. Romanticism. The changes are strongly …show more content…

Mary E. Burton describes Wordsworth’s view of nature as “incomprehensibly ecstatic” and also says that he lived with a philosophy in nature in her essay titled “Wordsworth’s Nature Philosophy as Revealed by his Revision of the Prelude” (300). In the original version Wordsworth writes “A host, of dancing daffodils;” and in the revised version writes “A host, of golden daffodils;” (Sucksmith, 149). The changing of the word “dancing” to “golden” gives the daffodils an almost angelic quality. Wordsworth emphasises the beauty of this scene by making this change and therefore portrays the beauty of nature. In Edward F. Kravitt’s “Romanticism Today”, John Warrack mentions that Romantic poetry has “a new preoccupation with Nature . . . a turn towards the mystic and supernatural both religious [and merely spooky] . . . a fascination with the past . . . [with] legends of medi-eval chivalry . . . [and] new attention given to national . . . [and] individual identity” (94). These themes can be seen in “I wandered lonely as a cloud” ensuring us that it is a Romantic poem. The supernatural is a characteristic of Romanticism, as pointed out by Warrack, and is a theme in many Romantic poems. By changing the word “dancing” to “golden” Wordsworth gives the poem a peaceful, almost holy, angelic or supernatural image, in keeping with Warrack’s definition. Other definitions which are similar and which define this poem are also in Kravitt’s

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