epiphany

[Iza]

Can anyone explain what epiphany means?

I have found that it is a manifestation of God's presence on the world or the spiritual state.
My question is: In what sense is the poem "I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud" the epiphany for the author?

Please give me some light to the topic.

[rowankat]

I'd say the best way to look at the word epiphany here is as a GREAT discovery...a self discovery even...or something that should have been obvious to us and was right there all the time- but we couldn't see it. Here I believe the epiphany is the difference between solitude and lonliness.

[Iza]

thank you very much, I appreciate your reply.
Literature has always been pretty difficult to me and now in foreign language it is even more difficult.
I'm not sure how important is the expression " For oft" but I have no clue what it means.
What concerns solitude and loneliness, Does the difference is that solitude makes the poet feel happy and the loneliness makes him sad?

[johann cruyff]

Oft means frequently,often,many times in short intervals,if that's what you're asking.

[Iza]

Well, yes. Thats what I thought

[Sweets America]

The first time I heard about Epiphany was when I studied Joyce's Dubliners. I agree with rowankat when he/she says that epiphany is a discovery, "something that should have been obvious to us and was right there all the time- but we couldn't see it.", that's how I see it too. Something like a sudden consciousness. A kind of climax, maybe. An epiphany can be a revelation, the removal of a veil, a transformation...