The Daffodils (New Oxford Modern English -7) by David Horsburgh

                                         The Daffodils

Answer the following questions.

1) What is simile in the first verse?

Ans: A simile is a rhetorical figure expressing comparison or likeness that directly compares two objects through some connective word such as like, as, so, than, or a verb such as resembles.

          “I wondered lonely as a cloud” is called a simile, because it finds something similar in two different things. In this case it’s saying that both the poet and a cloud are “lonely.

2) What do we learn about the poet from the first two verses?

Ans: In the first stanza the speaker describes a time when he meandered over the valleys and hills, "lonely as a cloud." Finally, he came across a crowd of daffodils stretching out over almost everything he could see, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze":

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills”

In the second stanza the speaker goes into more detail about the daffodils. They reminded him of the Milky Way, because there were so many flowers packed together that they seemed to be never-ending. The speaker guesses that there were ten thousand daffodils, which were "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance":

“Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way.”

3) How are the daffodils described in the first two verse?

Ans: The poet in the first verse tells us he ‘Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ This simile, of the poet comparing himself to a cloud conveys the image of him floating loftily and dreamily, like someone with romantic ideals. ‘The Daffodils’, the central symbol of the poem are personified i.e given human qualities ‘Fluttering and dancing in the breeze’ and are what the poet sees as he walks. The daffodils ‘Out do the Waves’ that also dance, as conveyed in the fifth stanza, coupled with the clouds are all nature personified.

In the second verse the poet described that the daffodils were shining as the stars shine in the Milky Way. He also exaggerated that he saw ten thousand daffodils at a glance.=

4) What is the simile in the second verse?

Ans: A simile is a rhetorical figure expressing comparison or likeness that directly compares two objects through some connective word such as like, as, so, than, or a verb such as resembles.

          “Continuous as the stars that shine” is called a simile, because it finds something similar in two different things ‘continuous’ and ‘shine’.

5) In the third verse why is the poet so happy?

Ans: In the third stanza the speaker compares the waves of the lake to the waves of daffodils and decides that even though the lake is "sparkling," the daffodils win because they have more "glee." He then comments that he, like any other poet, could not help but be happy "in such a jocund company." He looked at the scene for a long time, but while he was there he was unable to understand what he had gained from the experience. So, the poet is so happy.

6) How is the last verse different from other verses? Is the poet describing a different mood from that expressed in the previous verses?

Ans: The last verse is different from other verses because In the final verse the poet describes what he gained from the experience. Afterwards, when he was lonely or feeling "pensive," he could remember the daffodils, seeing them with his "inward eye,”. Which was absent on the above verses. So it’s to say that  the last verse different from other verses.