Finding Hope and Beauty in Wordsworth's Timeless "Daffodils"

A bit of a remedy is offered here, for the world’s ceaseless whir and pounding, for the sense that all the world is sometimes crazy, upside down, and lost; bridges to greener pastures seldom built, and never crossed. There are better ways to see things, filled with hope and beauty, visions you can recall if you try, that bring laughter, keep one from the cry.

One of the greats for hope and beauty is the great wordsmith William Wordsworth, and so, to lift your spirits a bit, to reinforce the source of hope and peace, recall in the fall, here is his little masterwork, “Daffodils.” May his spirit lift you – and his words – as they do me.

“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 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.”

At the close of summer and bright start of fall, when things come and go, leaves turn and minds, when keeping track is hard for all, think on daffodils and other thrills, watch green turn to red, each colorful pile cause for a smile.