Introducing the Poem

Literary Focus: Rhythm and Meter

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloudby William Wordsworth

Feature Menu

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloudby William Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudIntroducing the Poem

Click here to listen to the first stanza.

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudIntroducing the Poem

In this poem the speaker describes a memorable, inspiring moment in which he connected deeply with nature.

• The opening lines compare the speaker, in his solitary strolling, to a drifting cloud.

[End of Section]

• The solitude is broken when the speaker notices some daffodils “dancing in the breeze.”

Rhythm—repetition of sound patterns.

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudLiterary Focus: Rhythm and Meter

Meter—regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

• Rhythm is what gives poetry its musical quality.

• You can hear meter just as you can hear the steady beat of a heart.

Scanning

To describe a poem’s meter, you scan the poem.

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudLiterary Focus: Rhythm and Meter

• Read the poem aloud and listen for the beat.

• Mark the stressed syllables with the symbol (′) and the unstressed syllables with the symbol (˘).

It was many and many a year ago,from “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘′ ′ ′˘ ˘ ˘

• What pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables can you identify?

I Wandered Lonely as a CloudLiterary Focus: Rhythm and Meter

Read Wordsworth’s poem aloud to scan it.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills

˘ ′ ˘ ˘ ˘′ ′ ′

˘ ′ ˘ ˘ ˘′ ′ ′

[End of Section]