Move over William Shakespeare - here comes William Wordsworth

This week we have been learning about Daffodil Day in New Zealand, which is happening this Friday 27th August.

We learned about the Cancer Society which helps people by:

- encouraging the government to change laws to help people stay healthier and avoid cancer such as making it illegal to smoke in some public places

- funding research into better treatments for cancer.

- giving support to people who are ill with cancer (and their families) through providing great information, nurses, counsellors, volunteer driving and meal service.

- providing free accommodation to ensure that people have somewhere nice to stay while they have treatment for cancer.

The daffodil is the symbol used by cancer societies all around the world as a symbol of hope, representing new life and possibilities.





So.... it was a good time to learn about one of the most well-known English poems, The Daffodils by William Wordsworth.

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;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and 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 waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Things we noticed about the poem:

• Every line starts with a capital letter
• It has iambic something but it is not like Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare, which is iambic pentameter because that has five feet (beats). This has four feet and we researched to discover that it is called iambic tetrameter: I wandered lonely as a cloud
• Every stanza has a quatrain and a couplet (quatrain is four lines and a couplet is 2 lines)
  
• Each stanza has 6 lines
  
• A stanza is another name for a verse
  
• Every second line rhymes except for the last two of each stanza which rhyme with each other
  
• The rhyme scheme is abab cc
• It's about a person walking
  
• It's got some old-fashioned English in it such as o'er, gay, jocund, oft
• He uses metaphors e.g. a crowd (of daffodils)
  
• He uses personification (giving human qualities to something which isn't human) e.g. (daffodils) dancing, tossing their heads, waves dancing, his heart dancing
  
• He uses similes e.g. I wandered lonely as a cloud; (the daffodils were) continuous as the stars that shine
• Words which some of us didn't know: vale - valley (not a veil, which goes over your head!); o'er - over; oft - often; glee - happiness; gay - happy; jocund- cheerful, light-hearted; vacant- empty head, day-dreaming; pensive- thoughtful, thinking deeply; solitude - being alone
  
• He has changed the order of some of the words such as" Ten thousand saw I at a glance" and "For oft, when on my couch I lie", "And then my heart with pleasure fills"
  
• This is called anastrophe i.e. when words of a sentence are changed in order for effect - to make it sound interesting and to fit the rhythm
  

We discussed each stanza and noted that in:

Stanza 1:

• it is written in the past tense
• he was walking when he saw daffodils by a lake
  

Stanza 2:

• he describes the masses of daffodils using a simile and personification
  

Stanza 3:

• he says that the daffodils outdid the waves in dancing
• he could not be anything but happy there
• he didn't realise how much happiness (wealth) they brought him
  

Stanza 4:

• it is in the present tense
• the inward eye and the bliss of solitude means his mind, when he is alone and could be his "happy place"
• he feels happy and enlightened when he remembers the daffodils in the field
  

Here is a cartoon satire of The Daffodils.

Here is an animated version of The Daffodils with some music you may recognise... and a very modern example of someone lying on the couch in a vacant mood...

And, (be warned!) a rap version of Daffodils . Some of Wordsworth's original words were harmed in the making of this video...

Here is a short video about the Lake District where Wordsworth visited and was inspired by the daffodils.