Mohammed hassan asked 7 years ago
In the poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth, what does the poet mean by ‘bliss of solitude’?
Or, How does the inward eye become the bliss of solitude in the poem daffodils?
Or, how did the sight of the daffodils bring bliss to the speaker in later years of his life?
The ‘bliss of solitude’ means the blessings of loneliness. The poet William Wordsworth says that when he is alone in vacant and in pensive mood, i.e., when he is not doing anything particular, the daffodils which he had seen in the valley flash upon his inward eye and fill his heart with pleasure.
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
This is something the poet can enjoy only because of his loneliness. If he would have been living in the middle of many people, he could never realise the worth of the flowers.
Again, something seen in the ‘inward eye’ means a visual imagination, something spiritual that cannot always be shared with other people. That is why it is ‘solitude’. And as a spiritual vision that brings a feeling of joy, it is a blessing for the poet. That is why he terms the ‘inward eye’ a ‘bliss of solitude’.
By “the bliss of solitude” the poet refers to the joy that he shares with the dancing daffodils. It is a moment of bliss to be alone with the dancing daffodils in a soft breeze.
The bliss of solitude refers to happiness felt by the poet when separated from the outside world reminding him of the scenes of nature such as that of the golden daffodils that elevate his pensive mood and loneliness, and make his heart dance once again.
The inward eye refers to one’s imagination. With our eyes open to the world, we perceive things. With our eyes closed to the world, we imagine and visualise things. Imagination is called the bliss of solitude because we cannot imagine unless we are in solitude, a state of being alone by choice. So when the poet is in a vacant or pensive mood, he is enjoying his solitude and at that time, the sight of the daffodils flashes in his imagination (which is called the bliss or blessing of solitude), and his heart fills with pleasure and starts dancing with the daffodils.
The bliss of solitude refers to the jocund mood and happiness the poet felt that day when he was alone with the dancing daffodils. The bliss of solitude takes place in the poet’s mind when he sits on his couch in a pensive mood.