Wordsworth paints a picture of himself retreating to nature to find peace and serenity, he then exposes the his happiness of seeing the daffodils before him, ‘When all at once’ in this line Wordsworth describes how suddenly he saw the flowers, as if he was not expecting them and you can visualise the daffodils momentarily taking his breath away. This is also depicted through the calmness he creates in the first two lines of the first stanza, this peaceful scene is then interrupted with life, ‘I saw a crowd,’ and the exited feel that the last two lines of the first stanza portray, ‘Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’
Throughout ‘Daffodils’ Wordsworth continues the natural theme by writing about the ‘waves, trees and breeze’. Solitude is also apparent from the very first line, ‘I wander’d lonely as a cloud’ and the Wordsworth end the poem in his own company, ‘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’.
The main theme running through Gillian Clark’s ‘Miracle On St. David’s Day’ is contrast. The first stanza in ‘Miracle On St David’ Day’ creates an idyllic setting, ‘an afternoon yellow and open-mouthed with daffodils. The sun treads the path among cedars and enormous oaks. It might be a country house, guests strolling, the rumps of gardeners between nursery shrubs.’ The use of the word ‘might’ in this stanza proves the conversational tone of Clark and this alerts the mind of the reader that it may not be a nice country house in an idyllic setting. Clark then punctures this idyllic setting the first line of the second stanza, ‘I am reading poetry to the insane.’ Clark uses the full stop at the end of this line to show the matter of fact tone which differs from the conversational tone of the first stanza. This all depicts the way Clark uses contrast in ‘Miracle on St. David’s Day’. It shows the dissimilarity of the mood from the first stanza as we move into the second stanza.
Through the second, third and fourth stanzas in ‘Miracle On St. David’s Day’, Clark builds suspense and tension by describing the patients in the asylum, ‘A beautiful chestnut-haired boy listens entirely absorbed. A schizophrenic on a good day, they tell me later.’ Clarke uses a lot of the poem to describe the patients. The patients are portrayed in a clam matter, not in an erratic way as you may assume from asylum patients, ‘In a cage of first March sun a woman sits not listening, not feeling. In her neat clothes the woman is absent.’ As it is such a large part of the poem this adds to the building of tension and how Clarke describes the man magnifies that feeling of suspense, like a time bomb about to explode, ‘His labourers hands on his knees he rocks gently to the rhythms of the poems.’ In this line it is the words ‘rocks’ and ‘rhythms’ that create that feel of a heart beat or the ticking of a bomb which adds to the tension.
Clarke in her poem uses alliteration, ‘He is suddenly, standing, silently’ this line breaks the tension built throughout the second, third and fourth stanzas. This use of alliteration also highlights the urgency of the unpredicted action of the dumb labouring man.
In the sixth stanza of the poem Clarke goes back to describing the daffodils outside, sudden outburst of the labouring man reciting the poem ignites the thought of the daffodils outside to Clarke. The daffodils are then used in the relation to the labouring man and the atmosphere created by the labouring man. In the sixth stanza Clarke uses a metaphor ‘the nurses are frozen-alert’ she also describes the daffodils in a similar way but instead uses a simile ‘the daffodils are still as wax’ this creates the tension of waiting to see what the labouring man will do next, the reaction of the nurses and the change of mood in the poem.
Also in the sixth stanza when Clarke uses a simile to describe the daffodils, ‘the daffodils are as wax’ this depicts the daffodils like candles. Clarke then does the same in the last stanza but instead uses a metaphor, ‘the daffodils are flame’. This represents hope for the labouring man who has not spoken for many years who has now recited a poem by the lighting of a candle.
The first similarity of the two poems is the fact that they both include daffodils. However the narrators use them in different ways. Wordsworth uses them as a direct theme and how he is affected by the daffodils, he appears lonely and finds comfort and company with them. Clarke uses the daffodils indirectly and uses them as the reason for the theme, hoe the labouring man has never spoken and he then recited ‘The Daffodils.’
The main difference between the first stanzas of both poems is the contrast in mood to the second stanzas in both poems. This contrast is rather significant in ‘Miracle’. Clarke destroys the setting with reality. She firstly describes the calm scene on the first stanza, then in the second stanza the mood clearly changes when she states, ‘I am reading poetry to the insane.’ In comparison Wordsworth continues the same happy mood throughout he does this my using repetition of the words ‘dance’, ‘dancing’ and ‘danced’.
At this point the two poems differ, ‘Daffodils’ is written in the past tense whilst Clarke has her poem in the present. There is also a difference in the way the stanzas are connected. ‘Miracle’ uses enjambment, in ‘daffodils’ the stanzas are separate, with the use of full stops at the end of each verse. In the second and third stanzas Clarke uses enjambment to portray the split personality of the schizophrenic boy by splitting the sentence between two stanzas. As mentioned ‘daffodils’ does not use enjambment in the poem, but at the end of the first stanza, ‘beside the lake beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’ Personification illustrates a happy, joyous and coexisting atmosphere.
Both poets use personification of the daffodils at some point during the poems. In ‘Miracle’ Clarke uses personification in the first line, ‘An afternoon yellow and open –mouthed with daffodils.’ With ‘Daffodils’ they are described as ‘Tossing their heads in sprightly dance’ in the second stanza, not only in this line does Wordsworth use personification but he also uses metaphor when describing the daffodils this is also a poetic term used by Clarke, ‘the daffodils are flame.’
