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
——————
According to WIKEPEDIA the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud was “inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils.” I was introduced to the poem by a Blind Pig reader.
After I published a post that mentioned daffodils C. Ron Perry, Sr. sent me the poem saying “Tipper, when I was in elementary school….many, many years ago, our class had to learn this poem by heart. It stuck with me and anytime I see anything about daffodils I think of it.”
The poem has been going round in my head ever since C. Ron sent it to me. Now maybe it’ll be going round in yours too. I don’t think the daffodils have ever been prettier than they are this year..but I think I say that every spring.
Tipper
Wordsworth was a master. What a beautiful painting with words. I loved it. Thanks for sharing.
Tipper,
OOps! Got ahead of myself. I had to
click on yesterdays blog to get started.
…Ken
Tipper,
I didn’t get an e-mail today and I
figured Typepad was still having some
troubles. But then I had an idea: First,
I clicked just to the right of the
volume to hide the playlist, Then
scrolled down under Recent Posts (to
the right of all blogs). There was the daffodils post at the beginning.
Thanks C. Ron for sharing this with
Tipper to share with us. I like most anything by Wordsworth…Ken
They were absolutely gorgeous here also, neat poem ….
“Home again, home again, jiggity jig. To market, to market to buy a fat swing!
PS….That swing we brought back from Pinkens Flea market, was sticking out of our (Honda Civic)trunk, bungee cord holding the trunk lid down as closed as possible and stretched to it to keep it from flying up or out! Then hear this, after the two men, Roy and the vendor we bought the swings from, finally figured out how and got them tied in, put both chair swings in the back seat…..I am standing there, watching, with my rollator, Roy says, “Alright, we got it, let”s go!” He looked at me, he looked at my rollator, (it has four small wheels/seat, I push it to support me and my back/hip)……said “Oh #%@&”#”, I forgot we had to get the rollator in there…soooo, he untied “all the hard work” in the trunk, took out the swing, folded my rollator, shoved as best he cramed the rollator in the trunk, shoved the swing on top of the rollator, all hanging out the back, retied the whole “kitt-in-kabootle” and then he said, ” I hope that’s all” !!! I squeezed in the front seat that had been pulled up to the dash, (to make room for the swings in the back)…off we went with “no warning red flag” tied on the swing that was hanging out too far in the trunk!…I just knew some nice NC or SC State Trooper would pull us over before we got back to Tennessee. The only one that gave a look was a car or too when we decided to drop thru Gatlinburg to pick up some candy at “Ye old Candy Kitchen”, it’s on main street you know! I am sure I heard a “smart aleck kid” walking with some of the tourists yell out, “Look Mother, there’s some hillbillies!” Roy ran in the candy shop, bought “our Taffy & Rocky Road fudge” and we were outta there before a crowd gathered!
Have a great day! Glad you are back!
Beverly
I didn’t get an email this morning yet but the website is working fine.
I just wonder if Ron Perry continued to recite this poem amongst his peers all throughout his career.
I had to memorize “The Village Blacksmith.”
That’s a lovely poem, Tipper. I always love the daffodils in spring. It reminds me of my grandmothers house. It was always surrounded with flowers and her daffodils were beautiful.
The most beautiful flower this spring is the return of the Blind Pig!
Beautiful poem! Glad you’re back!
Tipper,
Finally…yeah and yooha!
The Daffodils are beautiful this year..The picture I sent you was of part of the ones blooming here. More came along and are blooming along with the little bunches of narcissus. They smell so heavenly. I have a new variety this year called “Jet Fire”, it is cute as a button and just fantastic in bloom. The petals recoil like a jet engine and the trumpet is orange like fire. I love it!
I found blooming in my azaleas a peculiar blossum. I am amazed that I found it growing out of the center of an azealea shrub, well down next to the center stalk of the shrub. I didn’t plant it! I think I sent you an email about it…The shrub was purchased many years, well quite a few in NC or SC…My better half tells me SC at the flea market at Pickens. The plant must have grown from seed. It is very odd and looks to be what I call a “sport”! It has the standard 6 petals but where the trumpet should be is very short round petals almost like a flower in a flower..It appears that the stamens abd pistil are the same as normal daffodils, but very small. There are a few more green stems with only one bloom coming from the stem area. They have stretched to a foot and a hald tall to reach the light. I have looked in all the famous daffodil catalogs that specialize in daffodil bulbs and can’t find it.
I hope I have a new speciman…
Wishing I could post a picture for everyone to see. So if anyone knows the name or has seen one like it, could let me know. I don’t know how I am going to get them out of there this fall without damaging the shrub. I may just leave the three or four and hope they multiply out from the shrub so I can dig the bulbs.
Thanks Tipper,
I know this poem well and love it. I can’t repeat it from memory…since my memory is fading without memomic devices…lol
Glad you are back..Have a great day tomorrow, for it is supposed to be beautiful, in fact we think we will go to Pickens, SC for the day…We haven’t been in such a long time and the plants should be out in full bloom there.
Hey, look who’s back! Hope all the glitches at the tech end have been resolved.
My daffodils aren’t blooming yet, but the snow and ice is all gone!!! Won’t be long now 🙂
I’m happy to see your blog return. The Wordsworth poem brought to my mind the many daffodils my Grandmama grew. She called them jonquils. I always thought they were the largest most vivid colored of any I’d ever seen.