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

These are the famous opening lines of Wordsworth’s poem, and they are notable for several reasons. First and foremost is the striking simile expressed in the first two lines. With disarmingly simple language, Wordsworth conjures a powerful image of emotional detachment. The landscape references may initially suggest an idealization of the natural world. However, the speaker’s figurative identification with the lonely cloud that hovers far above that landscape is decidedly melancholy. Separated from the world below and floating around aimlessly, the cloud-like speaker is in search of connection. And connection is precisely what he finds when he chances upon a swath of daffodils dancing in the wind along a lakeshore. It’s especially important to note the contrast presented between the speaker’s evident loneliness and the sense of togetherness implied by the “crowd” of daffodils. The use of this word signals that the flowers are important not only for being beautiful and golden, but also for the way they foster a sense of connection.

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

In lines 15–18, the speaker explicitly identifies himself as a poet. This detail helps make the case that the speaker is Wordsworth himself. Even so, it isn’t strictly necessary to make this assumption for the poem to have significance. Arguably more important in this moment is the key structural role these lines play. Zooming out for a moment, the poem’s overall structure moves from the past to the present. Whereas the first three stanzas concern the past event of the speaker’s encounter with the daffodils, the final stanza shifts to the speaker’s present day. The passage quoted above comes at the end of the third stanza. It therefore sets up for the fourth stanza, where the speaker will shift his focus from the past to the present. More specifically, these lines anticipate the final stanza by setting up an implied question: What makes these daffodils so important? During the experience itself, the speaker was fully immersed in the moment. However, now that he is writing a poem about the experience, the speaker wants to unpack the experience’s significance. Though at the time he didn’t recognize “what wealth the show to me had brought,” he is preparing to discuss the nature of that wealth in the final stanza.

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.

Lines 19–24 conclude the poem by shifting the scene from the speaker’s memory of his countryside trek to the present. In this final stanza, the speaker answers the implied question established at the end of the third stanza. That is, he explains why the seemingly insignificant vision of dancing daffodils has turned out to be so important for him. The answer has less to do with the flowers themselves, and more with the power of the imagination. The memory of the daffodils provides the speaker with a significant, imaginative resource. Now, whenever he is “in vacant or in pensive mood,” all he has to do is call this vision back to mind, and he can revel in the same tranquil beauty and sense of connection he felt watching the lakeside flowers. The key to this imaginative faculty is what the speaker calls his “inward eye.” This inward eye is something like a cinematic projection screen in the mind, which the speaker can use to replay important moments whenever he wishes, and in the comfort of his own home. Such a capacity helps transform the sadness and disconnection of loneliness into “the bliss of solitude.”

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