Task 1: William Wordsworth

Two iconic romantic poets are William Wordsworth and Samual Taylor Coleridge. Their joint publication of poems in Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is seen as the start of the Romantic Period.

One of the most famous poems by William Wordsworth is I wandered lonely as a cloud. Read this poem in your Poems and Extracts reader. You can click on the video below for a reading of the poem.

Assignment: Wordsworth

  1. The poet tries to draw a picture of what he has seen during one of his wanderings. However, he does not use factual language. Instead he uses a lot of figurative speech (=beeldspraak). Find at least three examples of this in the poem and try to explain what is meant by the phrases you have chosen.
  2. What element(s) of poetry in the Romantic Period can you retrace in this particular poem?
  3. The joy the sight of the daffodils gave him is not something that disappears. It is an experience of lasting value, to be recollected in a moment of peace while lying on his couch. We all have these kind of recollections of something that gave us joy in the past. What happy memory do you sometimes recall when you are on your own in peaceful relaxation?