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Saturday, February 5, 2011

Good day for a Poem.


Yes, I'm being ironic. It's an ugly day in February.

I don't even like daffodils. They smell funny. They make me sneeze. Still, this makes for a nice mental image when ice and hardened snow are in the mix. Mr. Wordsworth and I are in accord today.

Daffodils

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.

William Wordsworth
Note: Painting by Jen Blencowe

8 comments:

  1. Very pretty painting! Wordsworth poems are always gems. I like daffodils because they are the only bulb in my garden that the squirrels won't eat, and when I see them pop up in March I am cheered that both they and I survived another winter :)

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  2. a few month's ago it was Sugarplum Fairies dancing in my head. Now it's Daffodils
    Can't wait to see the ground.
    I got out yesterday went into a secondhand book store and found a (vcr-tape) of my favorite movie, other than Mrs, Miniver, It was Robert Donat and Greer Garson in Good bye Mr. Chips. I'll watch it Sunday, Tonite we are going to see The Kings Speech, I'll give you the review.

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  3. Good enough reasons to like them, Pat. :) If they didn't make me sneeze, I'd probably like them better myself. Can March actually be far away??

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  4. I know you're going to love it, Yvonne! Isn't it great when you go to one of those stores and find a little gem? Fun.

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  5. I liked daffodils and the poem. It was a poem we had to learn at school. Consequently, I hardly can remember any of it. I do remember, trying to learn it, (unsuccessfully) and thinking that this poem should be read and enjoyed, not laboured over by trying to memorise. One of the reasons, I get enjoyment from reading a poem,is just because I can And that the beauty/message/integrity of the poem is not dulled by the repetion of learning.

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  6. Oh, you're so right, Dave. And yet, at least it exposed you to poems in school. These days I don't think kids see much poetry. There are people who never read a line of it. My love of poetry, at least, began in school.

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  7. I did have to read this poem in school and memorize it, so I remembered part of it when I read it here.

    The poem and photo do remind us that Spring is coming soon, a very nice image for this cold, wet February.

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  8. Kathy: Nice image indeed. Bright yellow and green: Perfect for spring. When I was a kid, I do remember my favorite colors being yellow and green. Don't know why. Maybe cause I lived in the city and these colors reminded me of nature, even as a little kid. :)

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