The Connection Between Humanity and Nature

Wordsworth uses powerful natural imagery and descriptions of the setting throughout the poem in order to emphasize the significance of the bond between humanity and wilderness.

In order to emphasize the importance of a connection with nature, Wordsworth begins the poem by establishing the speaker's isolation. The title and the first line of the poem signal this sense of solitude, as the speaker describes themselves as being “lonely as a cloud” (1). While this loneliness could likely be attributed to the speaker’s lack of human connection, as suggested by the fact that no other humans are mentioned in the poem, it also seems to stem from a sense of alienation from the natural world. In the second line, the speaker further develops the simile that likens them to a cloud by describing such a cloud as floating “on high o’er...