I wondered 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,
These lines from Wordsworth’s Daffodils are so deeply
ingrained in us that it is very difficult to read them with detachment. The
poem sums up many of the themes that are associated with Romanticism-themes
such as subjectivity and imagination.
Although Wordsworth saw the Daffodils long time back , there
is a sense of immediacy and involvement. It follows that along with
subjectivity and imagination , it is memory that too plays a pivotal role in
Romantic tradition in general and in this poem in particular.
Everybody would agree that we can never go back to our ‘good
old days’ however hard we are whipped by the strongest sense of nostalgia. The
concept of time machine or the theme in ‘Back to future’ are still in the realm
of idea. Therefore there is no other option but to ride piggy back on memory
that alone can transport us back to the past.
It is memory for which I am who I am or you are who you are.
All the time throughout our lives we are engaged in creating memory right from
the moment we wake up till the time we hit the bed. Memory is what creates our
lives’ coherent narrative. What happens just in case there is a suppression of
links in the chain of our memory? We cease to be who we are. Just imagine
Wordsworth had a highly fragmented
memory? We could never have Daffodils in its present form. Wordsworth might
have resorted to meaningless confabulations. It is only for his coherent memory
that Wordsworth could write:
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;
Daffodils is nothing but the celebration of human memory.
( After reading Oliver Sacks)
