Poem 10: Daffodils

So after a short break, I am back with a poem which will be familiar to many I imagine, particularly those of you with Cumbrian roots. I have spent some delightful hours in recent weeks wandering and driving through the beautiful countryside of this swell county, and what with the spring in the air, I thought ot was about time I read Wordsworth's famous poem all the way through. Walking along the shore of Windermere this morning, I saw some beautiful daffodils and, along with crocuses and snowdrops, they really do make the perfect heralds of spring. I hope you can imagine the first rays of spring sunshine on your back as you read "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth:

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
Out-did 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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