'I wandered lonely as a Cloud'

Dorothy later described the encounter in her journal. 
Dorothy's Grasmere journal, written at Dove Cottage between 1800 and 1803, has been published and is considered to be a great literary work. It is included in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register. 

After describing the day's 'furious' wind  and a variety of flowers sighted on their walk, Dorothy writes: 'When we were in the woods beyond Gow-barrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side'.

Dorothy continues, writing that as she and William 'went along there were more & yet more' daffodils along the shore. 

On the following page, Dorothy describes their discovery of 'a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.'

'I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the Lake to them. There was here & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity & life of that one busy highway.’    

Two years later, William wrote his poem. It was published in his 1807 Poems, in Two Volumes, as seen here. It is thought that he returned to Dorothy's journal entry in the writing of the poem.

The poem reimagines the experience that William shared with Dorothy in 1802: both describe 'dancing' and 'laughing' daffodils. However, in the poem, William walks alone – 'lonely as a Cloud'. 

Wordsworth republished the poem in 1815. This new version includes  revisions and an additional verse, and is the one most popularly known today. 

In the revised version, the daffodils are ‘golden' rather than 'dancing'.

The extra verse is added here. 

The daffodils are also now 'jocund' rather than 'laughing'.