Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)
William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807), better known as “Daffodils” — full text plus summary, background, analysis of themes, form notes, notable lines, and a glossary of older terms.
Era
romantic
28 poems
romantic
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” transforms remembered nature into moral vision — attention ripened by time becomes wisdom.
The Solitary Reaper
A singer in a field teaches Wordsworth an ethics of listening — mystery honored, music carried inward as lasting solace.
The World Is Too Much With Us
A bracing sonnet against distraction and commerce — Wordsworth pleads for a restored capacity to see the world as sacred.
London, 1802
An urgent apostrophe to Milton — Wordsworth critiques national selfishness and calls for humble, star-like virtue.
The Eve of St. Agnes (Selected Excerpts)
A winter romance in Spenserian stanzas, “The Eve of St. Agnes” stages desire at the threshold of ritual and risk.
La Belle Dame sans Merci
A modern ballad of enthrallment and warning, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” leaves desire stranded where no birds sing.
Bright Star
Keats reimagines constancy as intimacy — a star’s steadiness translated into breath and touch.
Ode to a Nightingale
Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” captures the longing to escape mortality through the immortal voice of song.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Keats’s urn contrasts life’s change with art’s permanence — desire held forever just before fulfillment.
To Autumn
“To Autumn” praises ripeness and labor, accepting time’s change with a serenity tuned to soft-dying light.
To a Skylark
Shelley’s skylark, pure song in flight, teaches a difficult joy — art that consoles without denying human lack.