Daffodils
I wandr'd lonely as a cloud
That floats o'er vales and hillsides steep,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of happy woolly sheep;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Serene, line 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
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 keeps,
And dances with the woolly sheeps.
