The daffodils are blooming!

It’s been a chilly, dreary spring so far in central Illinois: lots and lots and LOTS of rain. Bone-cold, blowing, hit-you-from-the-side-rain. But this morning, as I strolled along the river at the center of our town, I spotted a clump of brave little daffodils pushing up their delicate heads to brighten the world around them.

. . . and to remind me of Wordsworth and his happy poem. In it, he celebrates the hope that daffodils bring: hope that light and warmth will eventually return, and that even in the midst of our darkest, loneliest days, joy can be found.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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 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.