Daffodils

Ullswater

Picture of Ullswater, England, today.

On a breezy day in the spring of 1802, the great poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and his sister Dorothy were out walking along the Ullswater in England’s Lake District when they paused at Glencoyne Bay to take in the beauty. That night Dorothy wrote in her journal:

“When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated some bulbs ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.

“I never saw daffodils so beautiful! They grew among the mossy stones about them, and some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness, and the rest tossed and reeled and danced. It seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake—they looked so gay, ever dancing, ever changing. We stopped again and again…”

William, meanwhile, stored the scene in his mind, and later turned it into what is now one of his most famous poems:

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.

Article and picture: Reprinted from www.bruderhof.com.

I really enjoyed this article today. I am looking forward to experiencing some of God's creation on this beautiful spring day in the Prairies, and maybe another robin will greet me.