The Obligatory Daffodil Post & Poem

Finally all my daffodils are blooming and I feel compelled to blog about them - I promise this is the last time this spring! They're just so cheery, though, aren't they? And when you pass a large display of them like this one . . .

. . . you must think of William Wordsworth's famous poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (or I should say I always think of it and then can only recall the first few lines). If you've also been trying to remember this classic spring poem, here goes:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ~ William Wordsworth, 1802

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.

Thanks for stopping by today, I'm off to lie on the couch and dream of golden, dancing daffodils! Hope you'll join in the reverie . . .

Please note: the giant daffodil is not real; do not be alarmed! It's actually a beautiful sculpture at nearby Fearrington Village.