The Cloud

Though the image of the cloud appears only in the first line of the poem, Wordsworth effectively uses it as a symbol of solitude and isolation. He does so by associating the cloud as an object with loneliness in saying “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (1). Unlike the other aspects of nature described in the poem that are grounded to the earth, such as the flowers and the trees, the cloud drifts weightlessly across the sky, and thus it can never know the “vales and hills” over which it floats (2). Nothing more than a passive observer, the wayward cloud alluded to by the poet is alienated from its surroundings and is in many ways detached from the environment in which it exists.

The Daffodils

The daffodils are primarily symbols of the profound impact of nature on the human spirit. As the speaker wanders through the...