The Daffodils

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 Milky¹ way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
Along the margin² of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly³ 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 jocund⁴ company!
E gaze –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 pensive⁵ mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss⁶ of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.