Amongst the daffodils – Wordswort’s imagery

A host of golden daffodils.....

The Daffodils

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 leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but 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.

William Wordswort

I mis-spell him here to honour him. Just for this poem alone he definitely deserves a wort ( a name for certain herbs in England) to be named after him.

A school text-book favourite, this unabashedly romantic and joyous poem carries a lilt. And it has its own music.  Imagine the last two lines, sung to the tune of the last few lines of  “The Sound of Music”.

Ullswater - here Wordsworth encountered his heavenly field while on a walk with his sister.

Jonquils

Credits

• Daffodil field image on Wikimedia Commons. “All aglow” by Mark Robinson (on Flickr).
• Wordsworth image – public domain.
• Ullswater image – here on Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Author – Roger Griffith.
• Jonquils – From here on Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under GFDL by “Fir0002/Flagstaffotos”.