English Literature
...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
Outdid 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 in 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 hearth with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Analysis:
Wordsworth had nature as his religion, and that was the main theme of his work and also a characteristic of romanticism. And it's also very clear on this poem.
As literary devices, we have Alliteration on the second line of the first stanza, alliteration and assonance on the fifth line of the first stanza and personification on the last line of the first stanza.
On the second stanza, we have a simile on the first line, inversion on the eleventh line and personification on the last line.
On the third stanza, we have assonance, alliteration and repetition of the word "waves" on the first line, and again repetition on the seventeenth line.
On the forth stanza, we have antithesis on the twentieth line and a metaphor on the twenty-first line. We also have alliteration on the last line.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
Part II of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the carne he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.
And the good south wind...
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