I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

1 I wandered lonely as a cloud2 That floats on high o’er vales and hills,3 When all at once I saw a crowd,4 A host, of golden daffodils;5 Beside the lake, beneath the trees,6 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

7 Continuous as the stars that shine8 And twinkle on the milky way,9 They stretched in never-ending line10 Along the margin of a bay:11 Ten thousand saw I at a glance,12 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

13 The waves beside them danced; but they14 Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:15 A poet could not but be gay,16 In such a jocund company:17 I gazed—and gazed—but little thought18 What wealth the show to me had brought:

19 For oft, when on my couch I lie20 In vacant or in pensive mood,21 They flash upon that inward eye22 Which is the bliss of solitude;23 And then my heart with pleasure fills,24 And dances with the daffodils.

Dorothy’s Grasmere Journal for April 15, 1802 records a scene before brother and sister on their walk at Ullswater: “I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones …; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing.” Yet, Wordsworth, characteristically finding in his memories continuing renewal for future times, wrote the poem 2 years later.