This is a poem I have loved all my life. I like its rhythm, its imagery, To me it epitomizes what the word Joy is. The poem dances across the printed page. My son planted a lot of tulip and daffodil bulbs as a way to remind me of his presence and his care after he moved out into the world to attend college and earn a living. With the coming of every spring, I look forward to seeing the golden petals of the daffodils. They still remind me of him and I feel his presence all around me as the flowers bend and sway in the wind.

 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

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not be but 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.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Yu/stan/kema