Help with a bit of analysis (1 Viewer)

[Icystealer]

I'm writing a speech and im using 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' by William Wordsworth as my related text but i'm struggling to find all the techniques which can relate to belonging.

Heres the poem:

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
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;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

​

 

[snowconesyum]

Just some ideas - these are what stood out to me when I read it, but I'm not sure if the outside critical consensus agrees with me... anyway..

- does the title fit the overall tone of the poem? is it ironic that he wanders 'lonely as a cloud' when the whole poem seems to be about the human need for belonging to the universe/nature, feeling in harmony with the external and internalising that feeling
(eg. and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils) - interesting word choice, his 'lonely' seems to constitute a diff meaning to the negative one, a meaning more akin to solitary, like being alone but happy to be alone with nature. hmm.

- important to notice all the word choices with positive connotations associated with belonging
eg in comparing 'crowd' of daffodils with milky way, he extrapolates his localised experience into a sense of belonging on a much larger level.
words to note: continuous (stars), personification of daffodils and waves, giving them friendly human characteristics (reinforces sense of kinship to nature maybe)
eg. daffodils = jocund company , they are tossing their heads in a sprightly dance

hmm that's all i can think of for the moment.
you should really research the poem and any analyses you can find, you pick up on a lot that way. google!

hope that's helpful, if only a little bit! i'm sure you have much more knowledge of how to relate it to belonging as the aos requires.

 

[Icystealer]

- does the title fit the overall tone of the poem? is it ironic that he wanders 'lonely as a cloud' when the whole poem seems to be about the human need for belonging to the universe/nature, feeling in harmony with the external and internalising that feeling
(eg. and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils) - interesting word choice, his 'lonely' seems to constitute a diff meaning to the negative one, a meaning more akin to solitary, like being alone but happy to be alone with nature. hmm.

Hmmm. I found this analysis quite interesting as you take the word 'lonely' as a different meaning where he is actually experience a sense of 'happiness' rather than the isolation which i interpret as. I may just be too linear though with my thinking as when i read this poem i feel that the persona does start off lonely in the negative manner and towards the end when he states "Which is the bliss of solitude" I comprehend that as that he finds happiness by being in solitude and outside of society. So essentially he moves from a sense of lonliness, alienation to a sense of belonging to the bigger world of nature.

What do u think of my interpretation?

Also welcomed to others aswell.