Language and style

We will now address the language and the style of the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth and pinpoint some specific elements the author uses in order to enhance the overall lyrical qualities of the text.

Playing with the language

Words are used with their literal meaning and the poet avoids irony and wordplay. The playfulness of the poem is given by the jingle rhythm and by metaphors and similes which create interesting associations. We will give you two examples of metaphorical wordplay. The first is when the poet associates himself with an element of nature, a cloud:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, (ll. 1-2)

The second instance of metaphorical wordplay is when he presents the waves’ movement and the flowers swinging in the wind as a dance: “Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” (l. 6); “The waves beside them danced.” (l. 13)

Tense of the verbs

The poet employs only two verb tenses in the poem. The first three stanzas are written in the past tense simple, indicating something that happened in a suspended past. We do not know when the poet encountered the daffodils; we only know it was a past experience - a memory in his soul, so to speak: “wandered” (l. 1), “saw” (l. 4), “stretched” (l. 9), “danced” (l. 13), etc.

Present tense is employed when the poe...