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Reading room · I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth (1807)

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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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

Syllable counts are spelling estimates, usually right, sometimes one out.

What this poem says

Hard because: long flowing sentences and old words like jocund and pensive.

The speaker is walking alone and comes across thousands of daffodils dancing in the wind beside a lake. He is cheered up, though at the time he doesn't realise how much the moment will matter.

Later, whenever he is lying on his sofa feeling empty or low, the memory of the flowers flashes back into his mind and lifts him.

It says: nature's beauty can be stored away like savings, and spent later when you need joy.