I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” appears to be a straightforward description of the natural world, but in the fourth stanza the speaker tells us that his memory has conjured up the scene before us. Nature has stirred his imagination, prompting him to set down his feelings.

There are clues to this in the first three stanzas of the poem, since the speaker does not describe nature minutely; rather, he focuses on a handful of details that provoke passion in him. The first two lines tell us that he does not walk through the landscape observing every little detail; instead, he is distracted, possibly lost in thought. It is when nature corresponds to an impulse within him that he pays attention to it.

The dancing daffodils and waves evoke a feeling of joy and liberation, and it is these feelings he remembers later, when he is in an uninspiring setting.

The poem seems to suggest that scientific objectivity would tell us little about nature, but the power of the imagination evokes its magnificence. The poem is as much about this congruence between nature and the mind as it is about nature itself.