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.
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📖 About this poem
Wordsworth wrote this after a walk with his sister Dorothy near Ullswater, where they came upon a shoreline crowded with daffodils. The poem starts small, almost shy — a lone cloud drifting — then opens into abundance, ten thousand flowers tossing their heads like a crowd at a party. That turn, from solitude to sudden company, is the whole engine of the poem. The rhythm is easy and song-like, simple rhymes carrying you along the way the breeze carries the flowers, so the form itself feels like dancing.
The lasting trick, though, is saved for the end. The daffodils aren't just a pretty sight; they become memory, something the mind can replay on a dull day, lighting up what he calls the inward eye. That's why it still resonates — it's less about flowers than about how a single vivid moment can quietly restock your happiness later, uninvited, exactly when you need it.
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