| Literary Device |
Line Reference |
Explanation |
| Personification and Connotation |
3-4 |
The word "crowd" carries a connotation of a group of people, personifying the daffodils as a wandering gathering of people. |
| Hyperbole and Imagery |
7-8 |
Saying that the daffodils are as numerous as the stars in the Milky Way (containing anywhere from 200 to 400 billion stars) exaggerates the number but conveys the feeling of an endless sea of yellow. In this case the hyperbole gives the reader intense visual imagery of Wordsworth's inspiration. |
| Personification |
11-2 |
Daffodil's cannot "dance" but the idea of wind running through a bed of flowers is captured. In addition, the theme of personifying daffodils is repeated here and will be repeated later. The personification of nature is not only an important part of Romanticism but also a trademark of Wordsworth. |
| Personification |
13 |
Much like the previous term, Wordsworth uses a human action to describe an nonsentient object. In this case it is used to compare the waves to the daffodils: the ocean to the earth. The fact that both daffodils and waves are "dancing" gives them a subject to be compared in. In this comparison the daffodils outshine the waves to exhibit Wordsworth's preference of the earth's beauty over the ocean's. |
| Diction |
16 |
The word "jocund," spawning from a similar Middle English word, gives the poem a strong English identity. This correlates with Wordsworth's dislike of living outside his home of England: from his life story it can be seen that he feels a strong affinity for his home country. |
| Syntax |
18-9, 23 |
Wordsworth often uses odd syntax in order to fit his rhyme scheme. In these cases he moves a prepositional phrase from after the verb to before the verb. This also gives his poems the lyrical quality that seperates them from other poems as "ballads." |
