I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me).

I wandered lonely as a cloud (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.

-- William Wordsworth, The Complete Poems (Wordsworth Editions Ltd; 1998).

More like this

I think the title should be "Daffodils".

Oh noes, another bold tag has escaped!

My first thought on seeing this poem was "aargh!". I've had too many holidays as a kid in the Lake District. My parents even moved there when they retired. The tourist board make a big thing of this (as well as Beatrix Potter).

Yes, a lovely poem. However, as one who grew up on Mad magazine of the 50's & early 60's and who has a memory like a garbage can, I can't resist ...

I wandered lonely as a clod,
Just picking up old rags and bottles.
As onward on my way I plod
I saw a host of axolotls
Beside the lake, beneath the trees ...
A sight to make a man's blood freeze.

Some had handles, some were plain.
They came in red, blue, pink, and green.
A few were orange in the main -
The damndest sight I've ever seen.
The females gave a sprightly glance;
The male ones all wore knee-length pants.

And now as on the couch I lie,
The doctor asks me what I see.
They flash upon my inward eye
And make me laugh with fiendish glee.
I find my solace now in bottles,
And I forget them axolotls.

I memorized it in order to annoy my mother, who admired Daffodils.

With apologies ...

By Scott Belyea (not verified) on 23 Apr 2008 #permalink