Dancing With Daffodils

Daffodils at Ullswater, Lake District, England
—Anonymous Photo
 

DAFFODILS
—William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

I wandered 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 stretched 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
  Outdid 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.

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For excerpts from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal about these daffodils, go to allpoetry.com/Daffodils/. According to that site, “In 1802 William and Dorothy Wordsworth's visited Glencoyne Park. On 15th April 1802, they passed the strip of land at Glencoyne Bay, called Ullswater. It is this visit that gave Wordsworth the inspiration to write this famous poem.”

—Medusa