I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” also known as “Daffodils,” was written by English poet William Wordsworth in 1804. It was first published in 1807, then revised and republished in Wordsworth’s Collected Poems in 1815.

The poem, considered one of the finest examples of English Romanticism, was inspired by a walk he took around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District with his sister, Dorothy, in 1802, as well as an entry Dorothy made in her journal, which speaks of a “long belt” of daffodils on the shores of a lake near Grasmere.

Wordsworth also wrote the poem partly as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution—a phenomenon that changed the socio-economic landscape of Britain for good.

The Industrial Revolution was characterized by mechanization and mass production, which made the country’s economy more efficient but led to an increase in urbanization and exploitative, sometimes dehumanizing working conditions.

At the same time, France and the United States were in the throes of political revolution, and radical new ideas were everywhere—liberal politics and an early understanding of human rights were taking hold.

The Romantic poets felt that fresh literary forms were needed to capture the new, rebellious spirit of the age.