Which William Wordsworth poem begins with the speaker comparing himself to a lonely cloud?

William Wordsworth’s poem beginning with the lonely-cloud comparison is I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

The poem was first published in 1807 and later revised in 1815. It describes the speaker’s encounter with a large group of daffodils beside a lake. The flowers are presented as moving and lively, while the memory of seeing them later brings pleasure when the speaker is alone or thoughtful.

The poem is frequently known simply as “The Daffodils,” although that is a popular descriptive name rather than its canonical first-line title. Its language is accessible, but its central idea is closely connected with Romantic poetry: ordinary nature becomes a source of emotional and imaginative power.

Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal entry about a walk near Ullswater in 1802 is often discussed alongside the poem. Scholars believe her observations helped shape the scene, though Wordsworth’s poem is an artistic construction rather than a literal diary record. The daffodils therefore function both as a real landscape detail and as remembered inner experience.