The daffodils
ACTIVITIES
1. Did you understand the theme of the poem?
Discuss with your teacher the following questions orally. Then, write the answers in your exercise book.
a. Read the first stanza. Then find the answer to the following question: with what does the William Wordsworth compare himself?
Ans: William Wordsworth compares himself to a lonely cloud.
b) Read the second stanza. Now find out the following: with what Wordsworth compare daffodils?
Ans: Wordsworth compares the daffodils to the stars shining in the Milky Way.
c) Read and recite the third stanza. Now find out what words worth means by jocund company from the options below.
(i) happy and cheerful
(ii) talkative
(iii) quiet and sad
Ans: (i) happy and cheerful.
d) Read and recite the lines:
‘I gazed and gazed but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought.”
What wealth the show to me had brought .
What does the poet mean by the word wealth ? Why does he use the word here ?
Ans: By “wealth,” the poet means the joy and lasting happiness he gained from seeing the daffodils. He uses the word because the memory became a precious treasure for him.
e) Read the last stanza of the poem and find out the following information:
What happens to the poet when he lies on his couch in a sad and thoughtful mood?
2) Choose the correct option in each of the following questions:
a) The poet compares himself to
(i) a piece of lonely cloud
(ii) a host of golden daffodils
(iii) a lake
(iv) the trees
b) While wandering alone, the poet saw
(i) a crowd of people
(ii) clouds floating over vales and hills
(iii) a host of golden daffodils
(iv) A lake
c) The poet compares the daffodils to
(i) a lonely cloud.
(ii) a lake.
(iii) the stars in the milky way.
(iv) a boy.
d) The ‘jocund company’ referred to is the company ofÂ
i) The daffodils
  ii) the sparking waves of the lake.
 iii) the dancing daffodils and the waves of the lake .
iv) the stars on the milky way.Â
(e) The inward eye of the poet is the poet’s
(i) vacant mood.Â
(ii) thoughtful mood
(iii) imaginationÂ
(iv) bliss of solitude.
3. Read the poem and match the following:
The waves | filled with pleasure and danced with the daffodils |
The poet   | danced beside the daffodils |
A Cloud | stretched in a never ending line |
The daffodils | floated over valleys and hills |
The poet’s heart | saw a host of golden daffodils |
4. Read the poem again and answer the following questions :Â
(a) Find a word in stanza 1 that means ‘to room about’,
(b) Find out what ‘O’er’ means. How will you write the actual word?
(c) Find a word in stanza 2 which means ‘a lake’.
(d) What does the poet refer to when he says ‘Ten Thousand saw I’?
(e) What is ‘sprightly dance’
(f) Give another word each for ‘glee’ and ‘jocund’
(g) What is ‘out did’ in out did the sparkling waves?
(h) Give the opposite of the following words : vacant, pleasure, bliss
 5. A beautiful poem is meant to be recited. Listen to the teacher reading to you the following pairs of words from the poem. Then repeat the words after the teacher and practise the pronunciation of each word. This will help you recite the poem.
(a) Wandered | Wondered |
(b) Breeze | Bridge |
(c) Shine | Sing |
(d) Stretched | Stressed |
(e) They | Day |
(f) Show | Sow |
(g) Flash | Flesh |
(h) Heart | Hunt |
6. Let’s go back to the poem once more and note the following:
(a) The first line (L1) of the poem ends with clouds.
(b) L 2 ends with hills.
(c) L 3 ends with a crowd.
(d) L4 ends with daffodils.
 Note that cloud and crowd are pairs of rhyming words. Also note that hills and daffodils are a pair of rhyming words.
Now make a list of the other rhyming words in the poem.
Trees | Breeze |
Thought | Brought |
Shine | Line |
Lie | Eye |
Way | Bay |
Mood | Solitude |
Glance | Dance |
Fills | Daffodils |
They | Gay |
| Trees | Breeze |
| Thought | Brought |
| Shine | Line |
| Lie | Eye |
| Way | Bay |
| Mood | Solitude |
| Glance | Dance |
| Fills | Daffodils |
| They | Gay |
Choose from the box the word rhyming with the underlined word and complete the sentences :
Still   dancing   mood    breeze
(i) The sun is shining and the girl is………..
(ii)The forest is full of green trees and the flowers are dancing in the cool………….
(iii) On the top of the bare hill I stand mute and……………
(iv) Don’t spoil my………….by being so rude.
7. (a) Rewrite the following poetic lines in everyday English.
(i) Ten thousand saw I at a glance.
(ii) For oft when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood.
(iii) Then my heart with pleasure fills.
(b) Find two words in the poem that are poetic in form and are not used in prose. Write a sentence illustrating the use of each of the two words.
(c) Illustrate the differences in meaning between ‘gaze’ and ‘stare’ by writing a sentence using each.
8. Note that one word in each of the following lines is wrong. Rewrite the extract below by replacing the word with the correct word of the poem.
The trees beside them-danced; but they  Â
Out did the twinkling waves in glee;
A cloud could not but be gay
In such a joyous company:
I gazed and gazed but also thought
What wealth the sight to me had brought.