Glenmel L.

Ribalde
BSED III – English

Task 3 Illustrating Marxist Criticism

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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.
Key questions

• How does the work represent the world or situation it seeks to compose?

It represents the relationship between nature and humanity.

• What does the representation say about the work’s position on the world or situation
being referred to?

Wordsworth desperately tries to escape the reality of his time, and thus dwells outside the realm
of mainstream capitalism through his intense focus on nature, with effort to escape the fetishism
of commodities, the inequality among social classes, the poverty rate, and the materialistic
culture, which was and still is embedded within our societal values and norms, particularly in
capitalist societies.

• What social or economic forces are being represented in the work, and how are they
dramatized as being in constant struggle?

This poem is about finding happiness in what you have. When we dive down into deeper
meaning of the poem; it is about missing the little things and being sad about our own conditions.
Just like what the poem described the flowers were a “jocund company” to the author that he
could not find in human and something that only nature could offer. “Jocund” means cheerful
and light-hearted. Their silent presence told more than the words of humans could convey to
him. And Wordsworth turns to nature to escape from the world of socialism, capitalism and
commerce.