The poem is personal, it relates the surrounding to an individual, whereas the entry is merely an appreciation of another specie. This creates a feeling of distance between the daffodils and the individual.
Dorothy’s entry is a description of what she experienced, her entry is written in the first person plural as she uses ‘We’ whereas William uses the first person singular ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud,’ We have to look at who the audiences are in both pieces. Williams piece is a poem so his audience would be the public, therefore he has to try and use more complex diction ‘In vacant or in pensive mood’ and make the poem personal and emotive, ‘lonely’, to amuse his audience. Whereas Dorothy’s purpose is for that when she rereads her dairy some years later, that she can remember what it is that she has experienced, therefore simple and descriptive diction is used.
‘I never saw daffodils so beautiful’
In the poem, William has 4 stanzas, each having a rhyme of ababcc, because he has an audience, he has carefully thought about how to write the poem to achieve amusement. Each stanza has exactly the same amount of lines and the same rhyme pattern, this emphasis how the daffodils are all the same. The first stanza describes how he ‘saw a crowd of daffodils’, the second stanza describes how many they are ‘ten thousand’ , the third stanza emphasis how happy you would be with such a ‘jocund company’ the fourth stanza describes how joyful their memory is ‘my heart with pleasure fills’. The first three stanzas are set in the past tense whereas the last stanza is set in the present. This emphasizes that the experience is a memory. The entry is one paragraph and has one tense; the past. It is only one paragraph because it is describing one aspect; the daffodils. Whereas William describes more aspects; his loneliness, the amount of daffodils, their ‘jocund company’, and how he would remember them when ‘on my couch I lie.’
Both texts have a joyful tone towards the daffodils, both describe the daffodils as ‘dancing’.
Text 1A ‘ and the rest tossed and reeled and danced’ Text 1B ‘Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’
Dorothy describes them as ‘gay’ whereas William describes himself ‘A poet could not but be gay’. Dorothy even describes the unhealthy or dehydrated daffodils as
‘Some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness..’
This shows her optimistic mentality which is reflected through her writing.
Both writers use personification for the daffodils, this but merely shows how important they are.
‘the rest tossed and reeled and danced.’ Whereas William similarly says ‘tossing their heads in sprightly dance.’ Both authors use imagery to describe the daffodils, As the wind blows through the daffodils Dorothy describes this as ‘..Danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind..’ whereas William describes this as ‘ Fluttering and dancing in the breeze’. The difference is that the imagery inflicted by Dorothy is subtle in comparison with the poetic version of William.
In conclusion both texts satisfy their purpose, Dorothy’s text is merely an entry that is to be looked back at to remember a certain memory, she succeeds in doing so since the piece is very descriptive and inflicts imagery. Williams piece satisfies its goal as well since he wants his poem to be amusing to the reader. He uses poetic and emotive diction and his theme is based on how a memory can please someone which many can relate to, he has broke the ice between the daffodils and the individual who reads the piece, he has made the piece personal to many. That is the reason why I like the poem more than the entry, it is concise, poetic, easier to remember and you can relate yourself to the poem. The entry is descriptive and is personal to one person, not many can relate to it except the person who wrote it.