Year 5 - English - 9.11.13

Daffodils - Summary

The speaker was all alone walking along countryside just as how clouds wander through the hills and valleys without any direction or purpose. He suddenly saw a field of daffodils beside the lake and under the trees dancing and fluttering by the blow of the breeze. Here the write compares the daffodils to host of angels as there were all in golden yellow and as peaceful as angels.

The daffodils plants were as continuous as endless stars in the sky which twinkle in the galaxy. The speaker could see the never ending line of the daffodils flowers along the sides of the lake. The speaker was delighted seeing thousands of daffodils swaying to the blow of the wind which looked like the flowers were dancing a very happy dance.

Although the wave in the lake also looked like dancing the speaker says that the dance of the daffodils was way better than the sparkling waves. This very sight had made the writer forget all his sorrow and misery (unhappiness) and to just be happy in the company of the full length of daffodil flowers. He is fully engrossed (absorbed) by the eternal (everlasting) happiness seeing the daffodils that he says it is the biggest wealth a person could possess.

Now the speaker talks about future.  From now onwards whenever he is his couch all alone and is in a very sad mood, the very remembrance of the scene of daffodil flowers will fill his mind with extreme happiness and joy that he is sure to forget the sorrows and miseries of life.

After copying the summary in the note book, stick the ‘Biography of the Poet’ and ‘Background of the poem’ in the notebook.

Daffodils

Biography of the Poet

William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, England, on April 7, 1770. He is known for writing Lyrical Ballads (1798) with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth died on April 23, 1850.  Mostly his poems portray the relation between man and the natural world.

Background of the poem

Wordsworth was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a long stretch of daffodils. This poem was written sometime between 1804 and 1807 and was first published in 1807. It is generally considered Wordsworth's most famous work.