“I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”

Ullswater, in the Lake District — Ullswater, just a short distance from where we’re staying.
(Wikimedia Commons)

One of William Wordsworth’s most famous poems is “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” which was inspired by a field of daffodils on the shore of Ullswater, here in England’s legendary “Lake District”:

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.

For images (including video) of Ullswater and fields of daffodils, see http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/daffodils-glencoyne-bay/.

Posted from Brockwood Hall, Cumbria, England

“I wandered lonely as a cloud”