Terry Hansen
English 2600-042
When a Cloud Stops to Smell the Flowers
This poem has a very simple theme. It is about having your soul moved to its very core, those moments in life where you stop and your soul drinks in the world around you. This awe and deep sense of content bliss is the general tone throughout the entire piece. The poem is broken into four stanzas each one capturing the feelings and thoughts as the poet’s soul is moved and how it carries on throughout his life.
“Life is available only in the present moment.” –Thich Nhat Hahn (Lain)
The poem begins with the author describing himself “wandering lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills.” (Howe 214) This starts of the poem with a neutral tone. Use of the word lonely initially gives the tone a feeling of sadness and isolation. This is quickly changed with the second line and the image of a solitary cloud just floating on its own over the landscape. A single cloud just meandering with no cares just simply existing. That sense of aimlessness is quickly brought to an end as “all at once” the poet comes across a field of daffodils. He hints at how this is no ordinary field of flowers to him. They are identified as a “crowd” then using at the start of the next line by placing emphasis on the word “host.” It is phrased so that when read the rhythm pauses slightly. The way host is delivered gives allusion to a heavenly host, showing that this simple patch of daffodils by a lake evokes a sense of divine reverence to the poet.
While anyone else could have stumbled upon these daffodils and appreciated them for their face value, they spoke to the poet’s soul and moved him deeply. The entire second stanza shows the power and great influence they had on him. The tone of the stanza is a dreamlike state of bliss and enrapture. He gets lost in the presence of the daffodils, they are as “continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way.” (Howe 214) This line is what gives the stanza its dream like state. The words “shine and twinkle” evoke a brilliance and radiance that is experienced in a dream. Plus simile of comparing the flowers to the stars, like the word host previously, give an otherworldly splendor to these flowers. The daffodils continue in a “never-ending-line” and “ten thousand” he saw in a glance. This use of hyperbole continue to emphasis that the poet is no longer simply perceiving the physical flowers but seeing them on a deeper level, as if his soul down with the flowers as the dance in the breeze.
In the third stanza the poet is slowly coming back to his senses. No longer is he lost in the dream like euphoria, but he is still greatly moved by the flowers. The waves of the lake “danced beside” the daffodils, but they “Outdid the sparkling waves with glee.” This shows that the flowers while no longer an expanse of never ending stars are still a thing of great beauty. The poet then begins to show how deeply he has been moved by this experience. “A poet could not but be gay, in such jocund company.” (Howe 214) This phrase says that being around such lighthearted company there is no option but to be happy and lighthearted as well. The use of the word poet and not use of person or people shows that this happiness is not something that the average person would understand. The poet, an artist, sees things differently, feels on deeper level. This implies that a regular person could be either happy or on moved by the daffodils, but a person, in touch with themselves and the world, has no other option but to be moved by host of daffodils. This deeper perception of the field of flowers is further exemplified by the line “I gazed- and gazed- but little thought.” The hard stop in the rhythm gives a sense of how long the poet sat and stared and drank in the sight of the daffodils, his mind clear of all other thoughts except for those of the daffodils. It is easy to picture the poet sitting on the side of hill with the valley laid out before him. The lake and the trees and the company of daffodils spread out before him and him just sitting there as the sun moves across the sky and the day wanes, with him sitting unmoving just watching.
The poem is ended with the poet telling how much his life was changed by that afternoon in the vales and hills. Whenever the poet finds himself in a “vacant or pensive mood,” he finds himself taken to the daffodils and “they flash upon that inward eye.” It is clear that the moment is just as clear to him in the days and years that came after the experience. The memory is ingrained into his very being. It is not simply an idle day dream or passing thought. It is as if his soul is transported back to that exact moment, simply by recalling the memory his “heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”
This poem captures those perfect moments in life. These perfect moments when the world stops and the present moment spreads out for eternity. When all of our problems and woes and temporarily held at bay, and we can just Be. These memories never leave us and we just like the poet recall them at the times when life is either hard or unexciting and our memories of those perfect moments give us all we need to carry on and keep on for another day.
Howe, Elisabeth A. Close Reading; An Introduction to Literature. Pearson Education Inc., 2010. Print.
Lain, Kwan. “Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes & Story.” From All and For All. WordPress, n. d. Web. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.
I initially chose “I wandered lonely as a cloud” because when I read it flowed and I really enjoyed the rhythm. The more I read it the symbolism struck me. Then when I decided it was the poem I wanted to analyze the true depth of the poem unfolded before me. In fact working on this poem I myself had a very similar moment that the author had looking on the daffodils. I felt the world of poetry open up before me. I found myself exhilarated and moved on a deep level. I appreciated poetry before this paper, but now I find myself ravenous for more.
hopescave 