Poetry Friday - Daffodils

This is my favorite poem ever and it's by William Wordsworth. I love the imagery, in part because I love daffodils. I'm looking forward to the daffodils poking their bright yellow heads out soon. 6th graders, if you weren't so narcissistic you might remember the scientific name for daffodils which we talked about when we studied mythology...

Update, March 6, 2009: I had picked this date for posting this poem nearly two months ago, so you can imagine my surprise when I went out into my yard and found the very first daffodils blooming on the same day this poem was posted! Fate :)


"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D 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 stretch'd 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.