Study of the Language Features of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Abstract

In this paper, the author makes a comprehensive analysis of the language features of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, a masterwork written by William Wordsworth from the perspective of nature images, rhythm and meter as well as rhetorical devices. In terms of nature imagery, the images of ‘flowers’ and ‘clouds’ are employed to highlight the poet’s feelings of loneliness and solitude. In terms of rhythm and meter, the poem follows the rhythm of iambic tetrameter and the rhyme scheme: ababcc, efefgg, hihikk, lmlmnn. In terms of rhetorical devices, the poem mainly employs smile, personification, enjambment and symbolism. Through the exploration of the natural imagery, metrical properties and rhetorical devices, the study has elucidated the artistic allure of the poem and its significant place within the canon of English Romantic literature.