Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud perspective from Humanist Theory

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Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud perspective from Humanist Theory

The writing discusses William Wordsworth’s poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud in the light of Humanism theory. Generally, humanist perceived this world through senses which can be explained using human observation and knowledge of science. Therefore, they reject anything supernatural as an explanation for existing phenomena.  Including in arts and literature, the humanist replaced the importance of God as the centre of the universe, in place of the idea of the human mind as a supreme power of knowledge and creation.

The literature would centre on human power of rational thought and authority of science through human interaction and behaviour. Next, the renowned poet who published I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud in 1807 is William Wordsworth. Basically, he was inspired to compose the piece from his sister journal entry about them coming across the view of the flowers on a stormy day together. The expressions in the poem are emotive and imaginative as the poet laid emphasis on senses, emotions and personification of humanlike gestures.

The other title of the poem is ‘Daffodils’ in which captures the reminiscence of spring days with blooming flowers in surrounding.  Along the words and lines, the poem recollects the state of nature through the embodiment of a wandering cloud. The serenity, excitement and mesmerization of the bright sunny landscape were commemorated in the perspective of a cloud hanging above the sky. We can see here, that the humanistic attributions were displayed from the very beginning itself. It was a mimesis of the beauty that the poet wanted to deliver.

In the poem, the dictions are mostly attributed with nature. From the humanist theory, the poet personified the flora and fauna with reference too human actions. For example, the golden daffodils are referred as a crowd and a host where they resemble the condition of a crowd of human.  The line, tossing their heads in springly dance describes the enchanted beauty of the flower in such expression. It was as if the buds of the flowers are the head and every movement captured is similar to human beings dancing in unison while performing a show. In our observation, the poem was written in a way that provided models for human behaviour and interaction through the characters or nature in surrounding acting out specific scene.

According to Plato, the poets would fail to provide us with knowledge of how to behave because they base their observations on nature which is the copy of the ideal and real world. He mentioned that as their poetry appeal to emotion rather than reason, it is bound to change over time. However, Aristotle, Plato’s most famous student holds different opinions on the matter. He proposed that art is not just a copy of nature but a process of putting the events of nature into a medium that improves or completes it. The literary work does not lie, it just reveal truth in a different way.

In addition, the readers were able to comprehend the emotions using their senses obviously through the language and lexical choice in the poem. This particular poem would allow readers to have sensory experience of the spring beautiful events and phenomena when human qualities give live to the nature elements in the poem. The vivid painting of the scene can be easily visualized by readers with the poet being reminded of the abundance stars in the Milky Way as the flower seemed never- ending.

Apart from that, the elegance and beauty of the flower are incomparable to the sight of the magnificent wave and it confers happiness in the heart of the poet who views the astonishing scenery from above as a cloud. Given that the daffodils and other nature elements are personified and viewed with human actions, the image of the event are more graphic to readers. The poem symbolizes such memorable happy moment in time which forever bring pleasure to the poet when the memory of the swaying daffodils comes to mind. It is a simple yet captivating poem about nature and how inspiring it can be.