'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 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.

-- William Wordsworth

Daffodils? Really? I'm not positive that Mr. Wordsworth was writing about the yellow drops of sunshine at all. In any case, I enjoy this piece for that very reason and I love the thought of Daffodils in March.

William Wordsworth mastered the idea of teasing, awakening, challenging and sometimes fooling the senses in believing what was being read was truly nature in subject. A beautiful example of what art is and what art should be. Something to cause controversy, something to cause a scene, something to read a second or third time and smile at what the author may have actually been referring too.

• Read more of William Wordsworth

• Wordsworth Poems (Hardcover)
• The William Wordsworth Page
• The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth
• William Wordsworth - Biography and Works
• William Wordsworth (1770-1850)