I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden Daffodils;
Along the lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The sibilance in ‘stretched’, and the words ‘never-ending’ add a sense of continuity, spirituality and aimlessness that Wordsworth started the poem off with (‘wandered’ and ‘cloud’). He also adds a sense of permanence and constancy with the word ‘line’ since a line is straight and unwavering, like his loneliness and solitude.
I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud