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-bid 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.