Question

Directions: Read each stanza of Wordsworth’s poem. Using what you learned in the lesson, analyze the poem and fill in the graphic organizer with complete sentences.

Diction: Identify at least two specific examples of diction that contribute to the tone. Explain the connotation of each example.
Effect: What is the tone? Is there a change in tone? Describe the resulting mood. Remember, mood describes the emotional response in the reader, and tone describes the author’s attitude.
Syntax: Does the poet use traditional syntax? Does the poet use a unique order of words, repeated structure, or purposeful punctuation?
Effect: How does the poet’s syntax affect the rhythm of this stanza? How does the rhythm influence the mood?
Graphic Organizer
Stanza Diction Effect: Tone and Mood Syntax Effect: Rhythm and Moon
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.

The phrase “lonely as a cloud” has a negative connotation of being alone, floating along by himself. The word “dancing” to describe the daffodils has a positive connotation and creates an image of happy, carefree flowers.

Initially, Wordsworth’s tone in this stanza is somber. His tone shifts to hopeful when he encounters the daffodils. The mood shifts from melancholy to joyful.

Wordsworth uses traditional syntax in this stanza. He uses several phrases divided by commas to describe the daffodils. At first, the rhythm is slow like the wandering cloud. The list of phrases divided by commas speeds up the rhythm, which creates a happy, joyful mood at the end of the stanza.
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 a sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be 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.