Has Wordsworth erred?
I was brought up on Wordsworth during the school days. And “Daffodils” was staple and inescapable! Now what is my gripe? It is the first line of the poem which goes like this:
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.
You will readily agree with me that it is very rare to spot a cloud wandering alone? They (almost) always ramble in a bunch. So I am of the view that a cloud is not an appropriate similie to describe lonely wandering. But what an audacity! A nondescript non-native speaker of English venturing insolently trying to criticise the great William Wordsworth, romantic poet of 18th/19th century.
But will there be at least a single homo-sapien who will dare to agree with me?
