The poem by William Wordsworth titled “I wandered lonely as a cloud” or “Daffodils” is a beautiful and inspirational work in which the author attempted to portray the wonderfulness of nature and communicate his admiration for it. In addition to its light and cheerful mood and diversity of descriptions, the poem contains multiple poetic sound devices that the author skillfully employed to make his masterpiece even more impressive and meaningful for the readers.
Analyzing the sound devices in this poem, it is, first of all, important to look at the overall form of the poem in general and its separate lines. It is easy to notice that they have a very precise rhythm that reminds of that of a dance – the activity that Wordsworth describes in the poem. The first four lines are a good demonstration of this phenomenon: “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” (Wordsworth, 1-4). The lines contain 8 syllables each with 4 accented ones, thus creating iambic tetrameter.
When it comes to the kind of rhyme used in the poem, one can see that both assonance and consonance can be found. Some the examples include such rhymes as a cloud – crowd, trees – a breeze, shine – line, glance – dance, they – gay, thought – brought. Also, some of the lines of the poem contain internal rhyme where the words echo one another within the lines: “Beside the lake, beneath the trees”, “Which is the bliss of solitude” (Wordsworth, 5, 22). Additionally, some cases of euphony (long and pleasing vowel sounds) can be identified as well in the following lines: “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, “When all at once I saw a crowd”, “Beside the lake, beneath the trees”, “The waves beside them danced, but they”, to name a few (Wordsworth, 1, 3, 5, 13).
When it comes to symbolism in the poems assigned for this week, I can name two symbols from the poem by William Butler Yeats titled “When you are old”. Many of the images used in this poem could be discussed and analyzed for their deep meaning; however, there are two that made a personal impression on me. The first one can be found in the following lines: “And slowly read, and dream of the soft look/ Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep” (Yeats, 3-4). In particular, the author mentions that the woman to whom he addressed the poem once had eyes with “shadows deep”. This phrase created an immediate image of a woman with shadowy eyes in my imagination. The shadows in her eyes symbolize mystery and the true nature and character of this woman that was unknown to many, meaning that regardless of the kind of feelings people had for her – no one knew her well.
Further, referring to himself, the author added: “But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you” (Yeats, 7). Her “pilgrim soul” is the second symbol that I found memorable. The word “pilgrim” indicates that the woman was in a constant search for her place in life and society and due to that, possibly, she never returned the author’s feelings for her; and also, since he knew her so well – he managed to come to terms with this rejection. As a reader, I am affected by these symbols due to their seemingly invisible connection and a strong impact on the entire meaning of the poem as they carry the point of the work in them.
References
Wordsworth, W. (n.d.). I wandered lonely as a cloud (Daffodils).
Yeats, W. B. (n.d.). When you are old.