The speaker

The only human character in the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is the speaker, or the lyrical I, who appears to be an alter-ego of the poet himself. However, you my arue that through personification the daffodils themselves and the waves of the lake become characters in the poem.

The speaker is initially sad and lonely, wandering aimlessly like a cloud (l. 1). His emotional state changes when he comes across a multitude of daffodils which impress him:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils; (ll. 1-4)

He is so inspired by the way the daffodils swing in the wind next to the waves of the lake that he starts associating their image with that of the stars in the Milky Way. From the speake...