I look forward all winter to those little signs that proclaim spring is on it's way, from the melting of the snow, to the grass turning green and days getting lighter. But one of my favorite signs that spring is almost here is all of the plants that somehow make their appearance. The bright
sunny faces of daffodils, the
beauty and color of tulips and the
subtle charm of crocus. The beauty of a field of these flowers in bloom is breathtaking. I remember the trip to
Blenheim Place and walking out and seeing fields of daffodils as far as the eye could see and being stunned by the collective beauty of this simple flower.
When my professor gave us the assignment of finding a patch of daffodils and reading the famous words of William Wordsworth, I was in heaven. I remember sitting in Holland park on a beautiful March afternoon soaking up the beauty and thinking that Wordsworth captured exactly how I was feeling.
"Daffodils" (1804) 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 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 fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
