I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

The 24-line poem is made up of four six-line stanzas, each consisting of a quatrain and concluding rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme throughout is ABABCC.

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter (it contains four “iambs” or metrical feet: u/ u/ u/ u). This is a common meter in English poetry and conveys a regular, relaxed rhythm—almost as if one is walking. This is particularly appropriate in this poem as the speaker tells us he “wandered” (Line 1) through the landscape.

His intimate, conversational tone implies that he is sharing a confidence with the reader; in fact, he wants the reader to feel what he feels, just as his heart dances along with the daffodils.

This sympathetic pairing can be found in the many instances of alliteration used by the poet: “lonely as a cloud” (the repetition of ‘l’ in Line 1), “high o’er vales and hills” (the repetition of ‘h’ and ‘l’ in Line 2), “[B]eside the lake, beneath the trees” (the repetition of ‘b’ in Line 5, which finds an echo in the words “breeze” in Line 6), “dances with the daffodils” (the repetition of ‘d’ in Line 24).