DAFFODILS - A POEM BY 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 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. 

When I was in grade school, I was fortunate to have a teacher who loved poetry and hymns, and thus insisted that we did too.  We memorized a lot of poems, sometimes the whole poem, and sometimes just a verse or two.  I think we only had to memorize the first verse of Daffodils, but the other three are familiar to me also, especially the last, so maybe we learned the whole thing.

Spring is here.  Spring makes me think of golden daffodils.  And daffodils always bring this poem to mind.  I wish we had them in sight, too!  Soon.  Maybe soon.