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Name: Manuel, Jesullyna C. Date: October 17, 2009
Subject: Introduction to Stylistics OP # 5
SECTOR ANALYSIS OF THE POEM I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a lyric poem
focusing on the poet’s response to the beauty of nature. A lyric poem presents the deep
feelings and emotions of the author rather than telling a story or presenting a witty
observation. The final version of the poem contains four stanzas of six lines each. In
each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. The
stanza then ends with a rhyming couplet. Wordsworth unifies the content of the poem
by focusing the first three stanzas on the experience at the lake and the last stanza on
the memory of that experience. This simple poem recounts the experience of the author
when he was wandering like a cloud; he saw daffodils fluttering in the breeze on the
shore of a lake, beneath the trees. The daffodils stretch all along the shore. Because
there are so many of them, they remind the speaker of the Milky Way, the galaxy that
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scientists say contains about one trillion stars, including the sun. The speaker
humanizes the daffodils when he says they are engaging in a dance. In their gleeful
fluttering and dancing, the daffodils outdo the rippling waves of the lake. But the poet
does not at this moment fully appreciate the happy sight before him. .Not until the poet
later muses about what he saw does he fully appreciate the cheerful sight of the
dancing daffodils.
Applying sector analysis in the poem, it is observable that William
Wordsworth uses a complete sentence with subject and predicate. There are six
sentences Unit and Trunk in the entire poem. The title of the poem itself is in a complete
sentence. Aside from using complete sentences, the author also makes a vivid
description of the daffodils by using several predicate to describe the scenery. The use
of a clause gives continuity in the poem, which makes it look like it was a narrative. The
predominance of major sentences in Wordsworth’s poem gives a clear impression that
he wants to capture the interest of the reader by using the language of a common man.
Wordsworth likes to begin each stanza by using a complete sentence and he expands it
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by using elaborate predicates and clauses. A typical line in Wordsworth’s poetry is
heavy with adjectives, complements and predicates that vividly describes the poet’s
sentiments and his appreciation of nature. In rhetorical style, Wordsworth’s poem is
about nature’s beauty that uplift’s human spirit. As it is emphasizes in the poem, people
sometimes fail to appreciate nature’s wonder as they go in their daily routine. In the
poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, the daffodils become much more than mere
flowers. They are a symbol of natural beauty and, more importantly, symbolize living a
life as rich in experience and sensation as would make a life worth living. They
represent, in their light-hearted dance, the joy and happiness of living an adoring and
fulfilling life, embracing it for every drop of nectar it could so bring. Romanticism, a
poetic philosophy that Wordsworth himself engendered, finds much virtue in this
meaning; the daffodils reaching out and catching the eye of Wordsworth’s narrator, or
perhaps Wordsworth himself, and inspiring him so much emotionally, that he was left
with little choice than to express them poetically. Wordsworth is known to be a Romantic
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poet so his common themes are appreciation of nature and seeing the beauty in the
world.
Sector Analysis of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth