Daffodils

Usually, around this time of year, I find myself really missing Washington. I haven't gone to check, but this similar sentiment has probably been uttered about April since I had this blog. It usually is due to several factors - one, is spring still isn't really here and I'm tired of winter. Two, Washington state has some of the most beautiful springs I've ever seen. Three, the annual Skagit Valley tulip festival is in full bloom, and I miss seeing those beautiful acres of blooming tulip colors and fields and fields of brilliant yellow daffodils. So I usually end up thinking of Wordsworth.

The Daffodils

- William Wordsworth

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 leaves 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.