Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud The waves beside them danced, but they
That floats on high o'er vales and hills, Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
When all at once I saw a crowd, A poet could not but be gay
A host, of golden daffodils; In such a jocund company;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, I gazed ,and gazed but little thought
Fluttering and dancing In the breeze. What wealth the show to me had brought;
Continuous as the stars that shine For oft, when on my couch I lie
And twinkle on the milky way, In vacant or in pensive mood,
They stretched in never-ending line They flash upon that inward eye
Along the margin of a bay; Which is the bliss of solitude;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, And then my heart with pleasure fills,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. And dances with the daffodils.
This lovely poem by William Wordsworth was written in 1804 and first published in 1807. Its' words reflect the language used by his sister, Dorothy, in a journal entry describing a walk with her brother on the shores of Ullswater on 15 April 1802.Here is an extract from that journal entry:
'& at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of daffodils along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them.
Shared by (M.G)
