In 1798, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads. In 1800, a second edition of the volume appeared with an expanded introductory section titled “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” which was written by Wordsworth. This preface soon became an outline for a new wave of poetry called Romanticism. One important idea that Wordsworth expounded upon was the idea that poetry should be driven by “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth, William. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” Famous Prefaces. The Harvard Classics, 1909-14). This emotion should be “recollected in tranquility” and “contemplated” until a “kindred [reaction] to that which was before the subject of contemplation […] does itself actually exist in the mind” (“Preface”). “Daffodils” is a thorough example of this idea. The image of the daffodils that the speaker envisions when lonely becomes, during contemplation, a source of “wealth” (Line 18) to be drawn upon when feeling low.

Romanticism both grew out of and developed as a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment, which was the dominant philosophical movement in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Although Romanticism broadly agreed with many of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, like individual freedom and religious tolerance, it found its emphasis on scientific rationality restrictive. The Romantic poets believed that classical literary forms no longer served them—they wanted to bring a greater subjectivity into their work, in protest against the social control and destructive modernity they were witnessing. They felt that the human experience was minimized in the face of industrialized progress. This led to their prioritizing the temperament of the individual, and recognizing the struggles of ordinary people, whose lives were often trampled underfoot at this time. Their only recourse was the life of the imagination, where people could maintain their unique identities, their dignity, and their freedom.

This is reflected in other important ideas regarding Romanticism laid out in the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”: Poetic form should be unforced but can also be experimental; nature encourages understanding of self and inspires communion; elements of the supernatural, folklore, and magic are beautiful; poetic language and experience should be commonplace; and there are human limits that one can strive to move beyond. These ideas are exemplified in “Daffodils."

The Industrial Revolution taking place at the time changed people's relationship with nature and with one another for ever. The Romantics believed that, by harnessing nature and individuals in the pursuit of capital, we disrupted our ability to live in communion with nature. Individual craftsmanship also lost its value, along with the rural way of life in England, the virtues of which had been extolled in pastoral poetry since the 16th Century. "Daffodils," like many other Romantic poems, promotes the countryside as ideal, a place that renews and energizes. It suggests that being immersed in nature brings one into a state of harmony.