“I wandered lonely as a cloud …”
Hang on, stop right there—
That can’t be allowed!
Clouds are never alone;
Clouds travel in packs.
If one wanders away,
It soon scuttles back
To rejoin the pack
To form an ominous bank,
And if one breaks rank,
It is to form a brand-new mass
Of soft billows and gas.
So I pause when I hear
Wordsworth read aloud;
I have my doubts
About that cloud!
Because of this,
Each time I see
Those magic words,
I see a lonely cloud
Trailing behind the others.