Read the big ideas and the method table, then try the six questions without notes. Each question combines two or more Unit 2 topics. The poem is William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” (also known as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”), in the form printed in the Project Gutenberg edition of The Golden Treasury (1861). It is in the public domain, and the quotations were checked against that text; punctuation and wording differ in other editions.
These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not official scoring.
Big ideas of the unit
- A poem has a voice. The speaker’s words, details and decisions reveal a perspective (2.1).
- Arrangement means something. Lines, stanzas and the order of ideas shape what the reader expects (2.2).
- Contrast is meaning. Shifts and juxtapositions, signalled by words, structure or punctuation (2.3).
- Words do work. Referents, repetition and alliteration emphasise ideas (2.4).
- Comparisons transfer traits. Simile and metaphor, with context selecting what transfers (2.5).
- Analysis is a chain. Device, quotation, function, effect, in a paragraph with a claim (2.6).
Key relationships and methods
| If the question asks you to… | Use… | Watch out for… |
|---|---|---|
| Describe the speaker | Words, details, organisation of thought, addressee, tone | Treating the speaker as the poet |
| Explain structure | What the arrangement does to ideas and expectation | Naming features with no effect |
| Explain a contrast | What is set against what, the signal, what it emphasises | “There is a shift” with no content |
| Explain a word or phrase | The feature, its function in this poem | Naming alliteration without meaning |
| Explain a figure | Main subject, comparison subject, what transfers, what context selects | Writing about the comparison subject instead of the main subject |
| Write a paragraph | Claim, quoted evidence, link, device-to-effect chains | Summary and unsupported labels |
The poem
I wander’d 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,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:–
A Poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company!
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought;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;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Question 1 (multiple choice · 2.1 and 2.5)
In the first two lines, the speaker compares himself to a cloud that “floats on high o’er vales and hills”. The simile most directly shows the speaker at this point as
- (A) solitary, drifting and detached from those below
- (B) angry and disruptive
- (C) hurried and busy
- (D) joyful and surrounded by company
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The main subject is the speaker and the comparison subject is a cloud. The words “lonely” and “floats on high” transfer solitude and drifting, and the setting of “vales and hills” suggests distance from people.
- (B) is not supported by anything in the comparison.
- (C) contradicts “floats”.
- (D) is the opposite of “lonely”, and the crowd of daffodils appears only in the next line.
Question 2 (multiple choice · 2.3)
The line “When all at once I saw a crowd” most directly marks
- (A) a shift from the solitary speaker to a vivid, lively scene
- (B) a change of speaker
- (C) the end of the poem
- (D) a move from the present to the future
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). “When all at once” signals a sudden change of focus, from “lonely” to “a crowd” that turns out to be “golden daffodils”.
- (B) is wrong; the speaker is the same (“I”).
- (C) is wrong; this is the third line.
- (D) is wrong; the sentence is in the past.
Question 3 (multiple choice · 2.4)
“I gazed–and gazed–but little thought / What wealth the show to me had brought.” The repetition of “gazed” and the dashes most directly
- (A) slow the reading to suggest a long, absorbed looking
- (B) show that the speaker is angry
- (C) introduce a new speaker
- (D) shift the poem to the future
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The repeated verb, interrupted by dashes, makes the reader pause as the speaker did, and the following “but little thought” contrasts the absorbed looking with a later understanding.
- (B) is not suggested by the tone.
- (C) is wrong; the speaker continues.
- (D) is wrong; the next stanza, not this line, moves to later time.
Question 4 (multiple choice · 2.2 and 2.3)
The fourth stanza begins “For oft, when on my couch I lie”. Compared with the first three stanzas, this stanza
- (A) moves from the remembered scene to the speaker’s present recollection of it
- (B) repeats the first stanza
- (C) introduces a conflict with the daffodils
- (D) describes a different place
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). “Oft” and “when on my couch I lie” place the speaker in a later, indoors moment in which the daffodils “flash upon that inward eye”. The stanza shifts in time and setting.
- (B) is wrong; the stanza does not repeat the first.
- (C) is wrong; the daffodils bring “pleasure”.
- (D) is partly true (an indoor setting) but misses the point that the stanza is about remembering, not about a new place.
Question 5 (short written response · 2.5 and 2.6)
In the last stanza, memories “flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”. Write a short paragraph (three to five sentences) that makes a claim about what this metaphor shows about the speaker’s attitude to solitude. Include a claim, at least two quotations (use a slash at line breaks) and a link.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The metaphor of an “inward eye” presents the speaker’s solitude as a source of pleasure and not loneliness. At the start he wanders “lonely as a cloud”, but by the end memories “flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”. The mind is given an eye that can see the daffodils again without leaving the couch, so being alone becomes the condition in which the scene returns. The result is a change in attitude: solitude was “lonely” and has become “bliss”.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim about the speaker’s attitude to solitude (not a summary) |
| 2 | At least two accurate quotations, with a slash where lines break |
| 3 | Identifies the metaphor (inward eye, main subject memory or imagination, comparison subject an eye) and explains what transfers (seeing without being present) |
| 4 | A link that explains how the evidence supports the claim |
Question 6 (extended written response · all topics)
Write one paragraph that answers: How does the speaker’s perspective on being alone change over the course of the poem? Use at least three quotations and refer to at least two of: structure, contrast, a simile or metaphor, repetition.
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The speaker’s perspective on being alone changes from isolation to contentment, and the structure of the poem enacts the change. The opening simile, “lonely as a cloud”, presents him as drifting and apart. The shift signalled by “When all at once I saw a crowd” brings “a host of golden daffodils” and a second simile, “Continuous as the stars”, which makes the crowd as vast as the sky. The repeated “gazed–and gazed” suggests that the speaker was absorbed and slow to understand what the scene meant to him. The final stanza moves to a later time, when “on my couch I lie”, and the metaphor of the “inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude” shows that the memory now makes solitude a pleasure. The poem therefore moves from a cloud’s loneliness to a heart that “dances with the daffodils”, so that being alone becomes the source of company.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | A claim about the change in the speaker’s perspective |
| 2 | Identifies the starting perspective with evidence (lonely, cloud) |
| 3 | Identifies the shift and what signals it (“When all at once”, the fourth stanza) |
| 4 | Explains at least one figure or device (simile, repetition, metaphor) and what it shows |
| 5 | At least three accurate, embedded quotations |
| 6 | A link or conclusion that ties the evidence to the claim about change |
Other defensible claims (for example, that the poem presents solitude as a precondition of joy) earn full marks if the evidence supports them.
How to use this review
Mark your paragraphs against the rubrics, then list the topics where you lost marks. Use the checklists for each topic and revisit the guides. When the unit feels secure, begin Unit 3, Longer Fiction or Drama I, or return to the Unit 2 diagnostic.