The Daffodils is an exquisite short
lyric greatly admired for its typical Wordsworthian simplicity, spontaneity and
naturalness of style and diction. The poem illustrates Wordsworth’s theory of poetic
creation. According to him, a poem is the expression of an emotion ‘recollected
in tranquillity’. He saw the daffodils in 1802 and must have often sought
solace in recollecting them in his imagination in hours of weariness. But he
wrote this poem in 1804. Wordsworth felt that the elapse of a certain span of
time was necessary for an emotion to get purged of undesirable frills and
trappings and be fit for poetic creation.
Once the poet was aimlessly
wandering by the side of a lake. In his solitary, idle drifting, he could be compared
to a cloud floating in the sky over hills and valleys. All at once, he caught sight a large number of
golden daffodils under the trees on the bank of the lake. A light breeze was
blowing and the daffodils fluttered and danced merrily in the breeze.
The daffodils grew along the bank of
the lake in a line that stretched as far as the poet’s eyes could see. They
looked like a continuous line of stars shining in the Milky Way. They were so
numerous that the poet imagined he could have seen at least ten thousand of
them at a glance. They were tossing their heads in a merry dance.
The waves in the lake were dancing
too. But the daffodils excelled the dancing waves in their happiness. It was
quite natural for a poet to feel happy in such a delightful company. The
beautiful sight filled him with an ecstasy of delight and he kept gazing, at
the flowers for a long time, literally sipping their beauty. At that time, he
did not however realise how valuable this scene would prove to him in the years
to come.
Later, whenever the poet lay on his
couch in a sad or reflective mood, the daffodils would flash in his
imagination. In a side remark, he acknowledges that one of the greatest
blessings that solitude can offer is that all distractions being absent, old
memories can be easily and vividly revived. The memory of the daffodils would immediately
fill his heart with pleasure and he would begin to dance with the flowers.
Rooted in a real-life experience,
its rich imagery and pictorial descriptions greatly enhance its charm. The
daffodils flashing upon the inward eye symbolise the role of imagination in the
act of poetic creation. The breeze which makes the daffodils dance and flutter
is the symbolic of the poet’s creative activity. The joy offered by the daffodils
represents the joy, the harmony that abide in Nature and that can produce a tranquilling
effect on a man’s mind. Thus in depths study of the poem shows how much wealth
of meaning lies hidden under its deceptive simplicity.
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