SPRING: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: DAFFODILS

2018 0311 10  Spring: William Wordsworth: Daffodils

"Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance"

Daffodils signal the start of spring. The poem that is the best at conjuring up a picture of an English Spring-time is "Daffodils" by WilliamWordsworth. 

The poem describes the beauty of seeing a field full of daffodils with their head nodding in the spring breeze. Here is it:

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

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:

my heart... dances with the daffodils

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.

                                    

For a complete analysis of the poem "Daffodils": [Click Here]

YouTube Video: Daffodils by William Wordsworth: [Click Here]