William Wordsworth: 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 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.

 

It's finally spring! I know, because it has rained but been far above freezing for the last three days. I personally am really happy that it's Spring, because I miss the sun a lot (Florida was a little lacking in February) but now, if the rain lets up, I can be out in the sun either eating lunch or running each day. If it doesn't let up, then at least I can enjoy the nightly thunderstorms, because lightning's awesome.

 

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. The lilac is my absolute favorite, as we had a giant lilac bush outside my childhood home, but I also really liked the wild daffodils that reappeared each spring in the back yard. Sure, roses are nice (I have a rose ring/ hair clip) but spring flowers like daffodils are so nice for much less cost. I really like flowers, but I'm pretty cheap- carnations are cool too. Also, reason #89 why RIT ended up being the perfect choice despite my real lack of effort deciding, Rochester's the Lilac Capital of the World, and I am SO looking forward to the Lilac Festival in May. I'm going, someway somehow.

 

I guess if I'm actually going to talk about the poem I want to bring up the really awesome opening line- "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Clouds are nice and majestic in the sky, but one reason that it's easy to lie on a soft patch of grass and make shapes out of them is because of the space between each cloud formation. Clouds are awfully removed up there in the statosphere, and we love their beauty and variation, but only from far away. They're free drifting but alone, and the metaphor is really appropriate for a person out meandering on their own.

 

My only other commentary is that I like the idea that maybe we as humans need nature to be a part of our existence. I brought it up in Sam's original poem about trees that nature seems to have significance in a lot of human lives. Nature is something to keep us grounded and appreciative of the beauty and grandeur in life, which is maybe why we're drawn to things like trees (my favorite thing to draw on Sol's boxes when I'm bored) or fields of daffodils. Not to sound like a hippy here, but sometimes I think we need to just forget about the millions of little minutiae that we occupy and worry ourselves with just appreciate something as simple as the flowers coming up for spring, or the fact that somewhere in the RIT forest someone took the time to spray paint the words"I LOVE TREES" on several trees, the entire phrase only visible from one specific location.

 

It's Spring everybody, go out and enjoy it.