Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining me.

I'm Mr. Blackburn.

In this lesson, we're going to introduce ourselves to the poet William Wordsworth, and to start to read one of his most famous poems, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Before we start, you'll need to make sure that you have a pen and paper.

You'll need to make sure that you turn off any notifications or distractions.

And if you can, you'll need to find somewhere quiet to work.

Right, let's begin.

Let's start off by having a look at what we're going to do in the lesson today.

We're going to start off by me introducing you to William Wordsworth, before we look at the form of poetry called lyric poetry.

Next we'll read one of Wordsworth's most famous poems, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," before doing a tiny little bit of poetry analysis.

And if poetry analysis sounds terrifying, I'll try and make sure that it isn't.

So who is William Wordsworth? Well, here he is.

He was born in 1770 and he quickly became very well known as a poet, and in fact, he was one of the original writers in the Romantic period.

Unfortunately, Wordsworth's mother died when he was seven, and by 13, he'd become an orphan.

So he had quite a tragic start to his life.

Wordsworth went on to go to Cambridge University, and after he left, he visited France in 1790, during the height of the French Revolution, when the French were overthrowing their royal family.

And later, in 1795, Wordsworth came into some money and he bought a house, which he shared with his sister, and that's an important point because his sister plays an important role in the writing of "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." During his writing and during his time at university, Wordsworth became good friends with another Romantic poet, pictured there.

His name is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and he wrote some amazing poetry.

Together, they published a book which was called "Lyrical Ballads," which many people consider marked the beginning of the Romantic era.

Now, let's see if you were paying attention by playing this short quiz.

All you need to do is write down true or false or shout out true or false, if you want, but I might not be able to hear you.

So question number one, Wordsworth is part of the second generation of Romantic writers.

That's false.

He was part of the original group of Romantics.

Next question.

Wordsworth's mother, sorry, died when he was seven years old.

That's true.

She did.

He had a tragic start to his life.

Next question.

Wordsworth visited France before the French Revolution started.

That's false.

Wordsworth actually visited France during the height of the French Revolution, so when it was at its most violent.

Wordsworth became friends with a poet called Samuel Beckett.

That is false.

He became good friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

And together, Wordsworth and Coleridge published a book called the "Lyrical Ballads." True or false? That question is true.

They did, and it was considered the beginning of the Romantic period.

Good work so far, everyone.

I hope you scored well on our little quiz, and I hope you've been keeping notes.

What I'd like you to do now is copy and complete these sentences by filling in the missing words or finishing the sentences so that they make grammatical sense.

Pause the video and come back when you're finished.

Let's see how you did.

William Wordsworth is considered one of the original Romantic writers.

Wordsworth's poetry might have been inspired by the death of his mother.

In the 1790s, Wordsworth visited France during the French Revolution.

Wordsworth became good friends with a poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and together, the two poets published a book called "Lyrical Ballads." This is an important book, because many people think it marks the start of the Romantic era.

You might have written slightly different answers, and that's okay.

If you missed anything or you got something wrong, then do just correct it on your notes so that your answers match mine.

Excellent.

Let's go on to look at lyric poetry.

So what is lyric poetry? Lyric poetry is just a form of poetry, and there are lots of different forms. When we talk about form, all we mean is what type of poem is it, and there are lots of examples.

I've given you three here, ballads, sonnets, dramatic monologues.

They're all forms of poetry.

A lyric poem is just another form, and this is the form of poetry that we're going to be looking at when we read "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Lyric poems are usually short.

They normally talk directly to the reader, so it's like we're having a conversation with the poet.

They normally express the poet's emotions, and that's done in a way that it wouldn't normally be expressed in an everyday conversation, for instance.

So poets can be really free and expressive with how they feel.

And it also, lyric poetry, that is, allows us to understand a poet's viewpoint and perceptions about the world.

So for instance, if they think the world is corrupt and dangerous, then we can experience their thoughts through their poetry.

Now, there's not a lot to remember, but let's see what you can remember by doing another little quiz.

On this screen, there are two statements which are true.

Option one says, lyric poems talk directly to the reader.

Option two says, lyric poems often contain the poet's emotions.

Option three says, lyric poems are 14 lines long.

And option four says, lyric poems are never about nature.

Two of these statements are true.

I want you to decide which two.

Write the option numbers down or shout them out, but remember if you shout at them, I probably can't hear you.

Three, two, one.

These are the two correct options.

Lyric poems always talk directly to the reader, and lyric poems often contain the poet's emotions.

Let's have another go.

There's one true statement on this screen.

Option one says, lyric poems have to be set to music.

Option two says, lyric poems are usually very long.

Option three, lyric poems explore the poet's viewpoints of the world.

And option four, lyric poems have characters and a narrator.

One of these options is true.

Which one of these options is it? Three, two, one.

It's this one.

Lyric poems often explore the poet's viewpoints about the world.

And a final one.

And there's two true statements on this screen.

In poetry, form means the type of poem it is.

Option two, lyric poems always written as dramatic monologues.

Option three, a lyric poem is a form of poetry.

And option four, in poetry, form means the way a poem is laid out on a page.

Which two of these statements are true? Three, two, one.

Hopefully you've said these two.

Form is what type of poem it is, and a lyric poem is a form of poetry.

And now we're going to look at Wordworth's famous lyric poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." I've split these up into different stanzas, so that they're really easy to look at as we go along.

You might want to look at the whole copy of the poem, which is provided as a worksheet.

"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 and the breeze." Already, it sounds quite pleasant, and it sounds very conversational, and if you remember, that was one of the rules of lyric poems, that it was like having a conversation with the poet.

The first thing I want us to do then is think about the tone which is being expressed in this stanza, and in poetry, the tone is the general feeling or attitude which a poet is conveying in their writing.

So do you think that the tone of this stanza is calm, angry, or upset? Hopefully you've said calm.

Right, second stanza.

"Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of the bay; ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance." So he's talking about daffodils that he's seen and how much he's enjoying watching them, and he's saying they're dancing in the breeze.

Now we're going to think about the theme of poetry.

So a theme is the big idea which the poet wants us to think about.

Which of these might be a theme of the poem, judging by what you've read of the first and second stanzas? Is it revolution? Is it oppression? Or is it the beauty of nature? If you said the beauty of nature, you're correct.

Wordsworth's making nature seem beautiful, isn't he? He's not saying it's revolting.

He's not saying it's dangerous.

He's not saying it's something which makes him sad.

He's saying it's beautiful.

"The waves beside them danced; but they outdid 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." Now, how do we think Wordsworth is feeling at this point? He's told us about the daffodils.

He's told us that he's wandering lonely as a cloud.

He's watching all of nature beneath him.

How's he feeling? Is he delighted? Is he disgusted? Is he disappointed? Which of those three? I hope that you said delighted, because he is.

Look at the words he uses.

Jocund, gay.

He's having fun.

"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." So here, Wordsworth is thinking about his life and how great it is that there are daffodils in it.

And he says that he often lays down and thinks about those daffodils.

Now, is he thinking that the daffodils are joyful and great? If they are, I want you to think or write down the answer true to this question.

Or is he saying that daffodils or something terrible? If you think that, write down false.

So the question is, at this point in the poem, does Wordsworth reflect on the joy of daffodils, or not? And of course, he is.

It's true.

He is reflecting on the joy that the daffodils bring him throughout his day.

Time for a little bit of poetry analysis now.

Let's go.

We're going to look at this quotation to start off with.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud," the beginning of Wordsworth's poem, and I want us to think about the word wandered.

Now, it means meandered or taking a stroll or walking slowly through something.

And I want us to think about why he's wandering and not running or rushing or sprinting lonely as a cloud.

We could think about the fact that Wordsworth's enjoying his time in nature.

We could suggest that Wordsworth wants to walk as slowly as he can, so that he can enjoy everything that he sees, especially those daffodils.

The word wandered is important because it shows us that Wordsworth is taking his time, and that he doesn't want to be hurried through the beauty of nature.

The next word which I think is very important is the word lonely.

Now, you might consider the word lonely to be something bad, but Wordsworth is enjoying being lonely.

He's enjoying being by himself.

He finds comfort in being lonely.

And he mentions later his solitude and the joy that he finds in it.

So in this case, Wordsworth isn't sad that he's alone.

He's actually quite happy, and again, he wants to take his time to really appreciate being alone.

And finally, Wordsworth compares himself to a cloud.

Why? When we think of clouds, what do we think? We might think of storms, but I don't think that's what Wordsworth is thinking about.

Instead, Wordsworth is thinking about those big, fluffy clouds that you get on an autumn day, and the way that they slowly move across the sky, and the fact that they're really high up in the sky.

Think about the view a cloud would have of the world.

Everything seems small, everything seems inconsequential, and everything seems calm.

By comparing himself to a cloud, Wordsworth gives the impression that this is the view of nature he's getting.

He can see everything and he can take as long as he wants.

And most importantly, there's nothing around which can disturb him.

What I would like you to do, then, is read these questions, think about what I've just told you and what you've written down throughout the lesson to answer these questions in full sentences.

Why might Wordsworth have used the verb wandered? What can we infer about Wordsworth from his use of the adjective lonely? So infer just means what can we tell about him? And why does Wordsworth compare himself to a cloud? Pause the video, answer these in full sentences, and then come back to check your answers.

Let's see if your answers match mine.

Wordsworth might have used the verbal wandered to suggest a leisurely and unhurried pace.

So remember, he doesn't want to rush.

He wants to take his time.

From the use of the adjective lonely, we can infer that Wordsworth feels like he is alone, but we cannot tell how he feels about being alone, although I'm pretty certain he's happy.

And Wordsworth might have compared himself to a cloud because clouds are free and unrestrained by the world around them.

Maybe Wordsworth enjoys imagining himself being like this, too.

Now, you might have written something different and that's completely okay, but if you think there's something in my answers which you haven't included, but you'd like to, you can add it in now.

Great work, everyone.

Well done.

You've learned the basics of William Wordsworth's life, and we've read through "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," and you've picked up things like a theme and tone.

Don't forget to complete the quiz to show how much you know, and well done for all of your hard work today.

Goodbye.