Poetry meme

[therealsnape]

Since the flist has added such unexpected joy to the day with all their wonderful poetry choices, let's add a favourite of mine.
My study has a view on a little park, and like the procrastinator that I am, I spend quite a lot of time looking at it.
Yesterday, it still was bleak and barren. And today I looked out, and literally hundreds of little yellow crocusses stood up and bowed.
Hence . And it has that brilliant that inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude.

I WANDER'D 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 stretch'd 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 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.

Comments

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

Ah, Wordsworth and his daffodils...they're lovely even when one does not have budding crocusses to look at and instead has MORE SNOW (perhaps even more so then, since without the real thing, you retreat to that inward eye).

And since I am indeed gay in the company of my jocund flist, I must be a poet as well.

(On a final exam once, a student, clearly faking his way through the whole enterprise, wrote, "In his poem 'I wandered lonely as a clown,' Wordsworth. . .")

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

MORE SNOW
I know! My heart bled for you and the other US flisties as I posted this. Still, enjoy the images of the inward eye - so much better than the Inner One.
I love your student as much as your fabulous new icon.
Now all it takes is a fic to go with it ...
Don't you just love this poetry meme? I've read the most unexpected things today. But then, I'm much less well-read in English poetry, so that meant more surprises.

[miss-morland.livejournal.com]

They flash upon that inward eye/Which is the bliss of solitude -- love it!

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Absolutely my favourite line, too.
That and the host of golden daffodils - living in Holland, every spring there's reason to quote that line. And soon we'll have the hyacinths, and when those fields are in flower, it's like driving through a mist of scent.
Next time I have a hyacinth bouquet in my house, I'll think of you!

[tetleythesecond]

Ah, dancing with the daffodils...how I would love to do just that! I just planted some on my balcony (with a few bunches of tulips), and one of them is already sticking its lovely yellow head out of the leaves.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

I monitor my pots of bulbs, too. The crocusses seem to have survived (but unlike the ones in the park are not out yet) but I fear for my tulips and daffodils. We had this warm spell in between to frosts, and they may be frozen. We'll see.

[minervas-eule.livejournal.com]

I keep buying Daffodils from Holland for weeks now...10 for ,80 C, they open up after two days on the living room table (in the middle of all that dust...) and brighten my life for a week...and then I buy the next bundle...
I do sooooo love the last verse!!

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

I buy them endlessly, too. And tulips - those vibrant colours.
How long is that terrible reconstruction going to last? From what I understood, you have complete windows hacked into your walls - it must be hell.
Love your new icon, btw.

[minervas-eule.livejournal.com]

How long is that terrible reconstruction going to last?...
well...I set the deadline at my 50 th birthday, which will be September next year ... the house might really be done by then, but I doubt the garden will be fit to be used....and, of course, I so much would like it to... but the house comes first... but it will never really end, as this constitutes my husband's only "hobby" (it is the 4th time I live in a "construction-site" *sigh* - but at least I call the shots in way of plan/design)

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

One of my all times favourites - it still feels as fresh as the first day I've set eyes on it.

No daffodils yet... but soon they'll sell them on every corner of Paris' streets.

And soon we'll have the hyacinths, and when those fields are in flower, it's like driving through a mist of scent.

Oh, I envy you.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

No daffodils yet... but soon they'll sell them on every corner of Paris' streets. And then it will be first of May and mistinguettes - such a lovely tradition!

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

After the daffodils, they'll sell bunches of lilacs (a few hyacinths too, but for a strange reason they're considered undistinguished - such a lovely scent though!) and only after that we'll have the first of May muguet.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Muguettes, of course. What an utterly stupid mistake. Talk about Freudian errors.
Makes me want to delete my comment. I won't though - it'll keep me humble.
Thank you for being so amazingly tactful in correcting.

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, don't! It's not a mistake but charming poetry - I thought you had done it on purpose.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

I thought you had done it on purpose.
That's why I love the French - charm personified. Thank you. I'm looking slightly less like a wilted flower now. No, I'm not venturing in another description of species.

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

*bisous* :)

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

I so love this poem. It's among the few English ones I know. But still, the first time I read it I fell in love.