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Lyric Poem · Nature

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

by William Wordsworth · 1807

I wandered 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

Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;

A poet could not be but gay,

In such a jocund company!

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

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;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And 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).

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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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