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Lyric Poem · Nature

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

by William Wordsworth · 1807

1I wandered lonely as a cloud

2That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

3When all at once I saw a crowd,

4A host, of golden daffodils;

5Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

6Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

7Continuous as the stars that shine

8And twinkle on the milky way,

9They stretched in never-ending line

10Along the margin of a bay:

11Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

12Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

13 The waves beside them danced, but they

14Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;

15A poet could not be but gay,

16In such a jocund company!

17I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

18What wealth the show to me had brought:

19For oft, when on my couch I lie

20In vacant or in pensive mood,

21They flash upon that inward eye

22Which is the bliss of solitude;

23And then my heart with pleasure fills,

24And dances with the daffodils.

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Quick facts

Poem
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
Poet
William Wordsworth
Published
1807
Length
24 lines
Form
Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
Themes
Nature, Happiness

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
24 lines · 4 sestets
Line length
Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
William Wordsworth1770–1850
Source record
PoetryDBI Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by william-wordsworth, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
1807
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 62bdb8b86fb34f95
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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