LESSON 46 DAFFODILS

DAFFODILS

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850), great English poet of Nature; wrote The Excursion and many miscellaneous pieces .

“GOLDEN DAFFODILS.”

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 [1] ,

Beside the fake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way [2] ,

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

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee—

A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund [3] 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 [4] or in pensive [5] mood,

They flash upon that inward eye [6]

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

—WORDSWORTH

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[1] daffodil: A yellow flower of the lily family .

[2] Milky Way: A broad luminous belt in the sky, caused by the light of countless fixed stars .

[3] jocund: Gay; happy; mirthful .

[4] vacant: Idle; unoccupied .

[5] pensive: Thoughtful .

[6] inward eye: The mind’s eye—the thoughts that call up the picture .