I wandered lonely as a cloud...

Dorothy Wordsworth when she was going for a walk with her brother wrote the following description. What do you think of it? Is it poetic? Could you find any poetic devices? Read the text and look for them.

The wind was furious... the Lake was rough... 
When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore & that the little colony had so sprung up -- But as we went along there were more & yet more & at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity & life of that one busy highway... -- Rain came on, we were wet.



The following poem by William Wordsworth also describes a wonderful landscape. 
Do you see any differences in both descriptions? Which one do you prefer and why?
Can you find any ideas related to Romanticism?

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.
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 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.

Who were the Romantic poets? They introduced a new type of poetry and freedom of feelings It was a period of personal and political liberty and the intellectual people of the period wanted to break the bonds of the 18th century conventions. All of them show a deep love for nature, passionate and evocative language and an emphasis on the "I" and individualism. 
In the presentations below you have some of the most important Romantic British poets.