IMAGERY

“Although a poem may contain images and ideas, it is made up of words. Language is the medium of poetry, and the exact wording of a successful poem is the chief source of its power. Writers labor mightily to shape each word and phrase to create particular expressive effects. Changing a single word sometimes ruins a poem’s effect, just as changing one number in a combination lock’s sequence makes all the other numbers useless” (Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Kennedy &Gioia, 521).

Read the following poem and answer the questions below:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud


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.

William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)

1. What things are described that draw on your five senses (this is called imagery)?
2. How are these images described?
3. What purpose does the poet have in describing these images?
4. Some of these images represent something “larger” than themselves, and are symbolic. What are they, and what do they represent?