英国文学作品分析

Wordsworth was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement.

华兹华斯是英国浪漫主义诗歌的代表人物之一。Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life.

对自然的热爱以及他大部分人生所度过的地方--湖区--的风光景色都对他的性格和作品有着深远的影响。

A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity.

他是一位真挚深刻的思想者，作品在严谨中充满纯真质朴与敏感。

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

我孤独地漫游，像一朵云

William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

我孤独地漫游，像一朵云

That floats on high o´er vales and hills,

在山丘和谷地上飘荡，

When all at once I saw a crowd,

忽然间我看见一群

A host, of golden daffodils;

金色的水仙花迎春开放，

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

在树荫下，在湖水边，

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

迎着微风起舞翩翩。

Continuous as the stars that shine

连绵不绝，如繁星灿烂，

And twinkle on the milky way,

在银河里闪闪发光，They stretched in never-ending line

它们沿着湖湾的边缘

Along the margin of a bay:

延伸成无穷无尽的一行；

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

我一眼看见了一万朵，

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

在欢舞之中起伏颠簸。

The waves beside them danced;but they 粼粼波光也在跳着舞，

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

水仙的欢欣却胜过水波；

A poet could not but be gay,

与这样快活的伴侣为伍，

In such a jocund company:

诗人怎能不满心欢乐！

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

我久久凝望，却想象不到

What wealth the show to me had brought: 这奇景赋予我多少财宝，——

For oft, when on my couch I lie

每当我躺在床上不眠，

In vacant or in pensive mood,

或心神空茫，或默默沉思，

They flash upon that inward eye

它们常在心灵中闪现，

Which is the bliss of solitude;

那是孤独之中的福祉；

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

于是我的心便涨满幸福，

And dances with the daffodils.

和水仙一同翩翩起舞。

Summary

The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. For now, whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive,” the memory flashes upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude,” and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.”

Form

The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.

Commentary

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”—is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud—“I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.