Monday, March 2, 2009

"Daffodils"

I'm ready for Spring, and I'm fairly sure it is just around the corner. In honor of that, an oldie, but goodie, if you will:

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 a sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In a 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 Wordsworth

I never really thought much of this poem until a few years ago. I was living in England, and it had been a long, very cold, very wet, extremely gray winter. By March, I was afraid I was going to rust, and I prayed everyday for Spring. One day in late March, as I walking, I came upon a park, and it was COVERED in daffodils; they had bloomed more or less overnight (I didn't know how suddenly Spring came on in England). I have never in my life been more happy to see a flower! The bright color after months of grey really lifted my spirits and I immediately thought of this poem; I realized perhaps what Wordsworth felt when he wrote this. This is why I love language so much: it can express the things we feel in our hearts, and allow other people a glimpse in. This poem really does evoke beautiful images, and every time I read it, I see, with my "inward eye", that park in England...