Reference no: EM13972397

On April 15, 1802, the British Romantic poet William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, took a walk, during which they saw some daffodils near a lake. Dorothy recorded the experience in her journal, and this entry affords us something close to the raw material out of which Wordsworth's famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"--on page 459 in the Norton Introduction to Literature--was made. The entry is not, of course, Wordsworth's own experience; Dorothy's experience was not William's, and Dorothy's words cannot exactly reproduce her own experience--or can it? Dorothy's description is not entirely "factual"; her daffodils rest their heads, glance, dance, etc. Still, her entry gives us something of the phenomena that stirred an emotion in Wordsworth, and for Wordsworth, "poetry was the result of emotions recollected in tranquility."

Two years after the walk, William presumably recollected and contemplated the emotion, and wrote "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," one of the most famous English poems ever written, leaving out the threatening weather, the plough, the boathouse, the miscellaneous flowers, and even the first group of daffodils, and the people (including Dorothy). Notice, too, that the sense of effort which Dorothy records ("we thought we must have returned," we first rested," etc.) is not in the poem: The speaker "wandered," and he lies on his couch in "vacant or in pensive mood" (20); if he acts, it is with spontaneous joy, but chiefly it is the daffodils that act ("Fluttering and dancing in the breeze," (6) "tossing their sprightly heads," (12) etc. What might feminism make of the information of Dorothy's journal that is not as possible with only the poem itself? Is William plagiarizing from Dorothy? If not plagiarizing, is he exploiting his sister and her journal? Is it William or Dorothy's "emotion" that is being "recollected" in the poem? Whose "spontaneous overflow of feelings"--another of Wordsworth's theories about poetry--is it that resulted in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?" Or are the resemblances between her journal and his poem only the coincidences of the two having a shared experience? After all, they were both together on that day. Is it possible that Dorothy merely dictated the words coming forth from William? In other words, knowing as we do from feminism than men and women read and write differently, does the journal's diction seem masculine or feminine, male or female? (Keep in mind the different valences of definition words like "feminine" and "female" have in the context of feminist criticism.) In formulating your response, you might consider the humorous poem "Why Dorothy Wordsworth is Not as Famous as Her Brother" by Lynn Peters:

Why Dorothy Wordsworth is not as Famous as her Brother (Lynn Peters)
"I wandered lonely as a...
They're in the top drawer, William,
Under your socks -
I wandered lonely as a -
No not that drawer, the top one.
I wandered by myself -
Well wear the ones you can find.
No, don't get overwrought my dear, I'm coming.

"I wandered lonely as a -
Lonely as a cloud when -
Soft-boiled egg, yes my dear,
As usual, three minutes -
As a cloud which floats -
Look, I said I'll cook it,
Just hold on will you -
All right, I'm coming.

"One day I was out for a walk
When I saw this flock -
It can't be too hard, it had three minutes.
Well put some butter in it. -
This host of golden daffodils
As I was out for a stroll one -
"Oh you fancy a stroll, do you?
Yes all right, William, I'm coming.
It's on the peg. Under your hat.
I'll bring my pad, shall I, in case
You want to jot something down?"

William Wordsworth first published the poem in 1804, but the version printed in your text (which is the one everyone knows) is that of revisions he made of the poem over the next few years, culminating with his final draft in 1815 in his book, Collected Poems. The differences between the first and second versions are these: In the first version lines 7-12 are lacking; line 4 has "dancing" instead of "golden"; line 5 has "Along" instead of "Beside"; line 6 has "Ten thousand" instead of "Fluttering and"; line 16 has "laughing" instead of "jocund." You can see the full poem as he originally wrote it here:

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 dancing Daffodils;
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: --
A poet could not but be gay
In such a laughing 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.

As you consider all of this from a feminist perspective and the role Dorothy may have had in its composition, you might evaluate these revisions. In particular, what do you think the added stanza contributes to the poem? Do the substitutions in word choice of the 1815 poem make it a better work? Do you prefer the 1807 version? Why? Cite evidence from the poem.