A comparison of Wordsworth's 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' and Clarkes 'Miracle on Saint David's Day'.

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Anne-Marie Waterworth 10df

A comparison of Wordsworth’s ‘Iwandered lonely as a cloud’ and Clarkes ‘Miracle on Saint David’s Day’.

The title ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud,’ says a lot about the poem, especially as it is also the first line. It immediately starts off the poem with a sense of inner disharmony, shown by the words ‘wandered’, ‘lonely’ and ‘cloud’.

‘Wandered’ gives the impression of being purposeless and ‘lonely’ shows that he longs for some sort of relationship. The word ‘cloud’ also relates to the loneliness and distance between him and civilisation. It could also mean that the poet is comfortable with his loneliness and wandering, just as a cloud seems comfortable alone. It also starts off a comparison between man and nature, an idea illustrated throughout both poems.

The title of the second poem ‘miracle on Saint David’s day’ starts straight off with a religious theme. Though this is not particularly shown through either poem, the fact a ‘miracle’ is a revelation is. In the first poem it is shown by the words ‘when all at once’ and shown in the second poem by ‘he is suddenly staring'.

It seems that the theme of an evolution for the better runs strongly throughout each poem. There is also a cultural side to the second title, the words, ‘saint David’s day’ might be showing welsh culture as saint David is the welsh saint. The welsh theme also applies to the first poem as daffodils, ‘a host, of golden daffodils’ are the national flower of Wales. Maybe the welsh relation is to show strength in a community or seeing the bigger picture in order to be happy.

In the first stanza of the first poem it mentions a word of archaic vocabulary, ‘o’er’ something not used in the second poem. In the third line of the first poem the recently peaceful mood changes, ‘at once’ and ‘I saw,’ makes the mood take a more excited and energetic turn. This also happens in the second poem, ‘I am reading poetry to the insane’. These could also be considered as revelations, relating both poems back to the word 'miracle’.

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Throughout the second poem there is a theme of mental illness, this is not shown in the first poem. In the first stanza of second poem, it is implied by the words ‘open-mouthed’.

Those words also mean in awe, in amazement of there beauty. The word golden, used in the first poem, line 4 represents the material wealth gives little pleasure but the daffodils brings emotional wealth, which is eternal. This comparison runs through both poems, ‘labouring man’ in poem 2 remembers a poem just like the daffodils they do not cost much but can create eternal joy.

Both poems ...

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