The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two poems with similar names, but very different content, tone, stylistic features and didactic message. The first poem is William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” written in 1804. The second poem is “To Daffodils” written by Robert Herrick in 1675. Both poems are about the comparison between man and nature, in this case, it’s the daffodils, but the poems are written in a different way. The poems are very different in terms of the way daffodils affect the writer’s state of mind.

The poems have contrasting content and theme. Wordsworth’s poem tells a story about a lonely man walking, when he saw a field full of daffodils and he became happy and overjoyed. Robert Herrick’s poem takes a
In ‘The Daffodils’, Wordsworth uses enjambment in all of its stanzas. Wordsworth includes enjambment in his poem to make it more intense and surprising to read. Wordsworth also uses enjambment to continue the rhythm scheme. One example of enjambment in ‘The Daffodils’ is located in the first and second line of the second stanza of the poem. Robert Herrick also put down some enjambment on his poem ‘To Daffodils’. One example is on the sixth and seventh line of the second stanza.

Both poems are structured differently, each utilizing different rhyming schemes and stanzas. ‘The Daffodils’ has an A, B, A, B, C, C rhyming scheme, divided into four stanzas. ‘To Daffodils’ uses an A, B, C, B, D, D, C, E, A, E rhyming scheme, split into two stanzas. Both “To Daffodils” and ‘The Daffodils’ uses a distinct rhythm, called the iambic tetrameter, which is a style of rhythm where there are four ‘beats’ consisting of 1 unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. This is shown in all the lines of the poem, since the entirety of the poem all followed the rhythm.

The diction of the two poems are quite different, as the two poems have very different content and themes. Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Daffodils’ use words like “jocund”, “sprightly”, “twinkle”, “glee” and many other positive word choices. This indicates the positivity and the cheerfulness Wordsworth is bringing to his poem. On the contrary, on the poem ‘To Daffodils’, Robert Herrick