japonisme: bliss

27 March 2008

bliss

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

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.

Wordsworth 1804

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

what a pretty blog this is, thank you for the pretty and the Wordsworth on a very grey day!

27 March, 2008 13:51  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Wordsworth's lines and pictures are enchanting. Thanks for this ray of sunshine. "Daffodil" is such a strange and funny word for French people like me! Would seem to come from another flower, the "asphodel".

28 March, 2008 03:26  
Blogger Joana Rosa Bragança said...

What a nice blog !!!
xxx

28 March, 2008 08:08  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

phd girl: thank you so much--i think it must have been a grey day for a lot of people, one way or the other.

et merci, lasourceauxbois -- you made me think of that word and i decided i actually do like it. it seems a bit silly, like the flower with its frilly collar. and plural, daffodils, you can almost see them blowng in the wind. are there different words for daffodil and narcissus in french?

obrigato, joana -- thanks for the visit.

28 March, 2008 08:21  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Daffodil is "jonquille" in French which I think is quite ordinary and doesn't sound very nice. I much prefer the eccentric fantasy of the word "daffodil". Actually, there are many other words for flowers in English which I much like and which are full of taste and poetry to me like "foxglove" and "lily of the valley"...

28 March, 2008 09:28  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

ha! i love the word jonquille myself: the jon part seems like the long green stems or leaves or fronds or whatever they are, and the quille is clearly the frilly, silly, daffo-dilly part ;^)

and mmmm-- i like your choices.

one i'm not sure of as to whether it fits or not is delphinium

28 March, 2008 09:44  
Blogger Diane Dehler said...

I like that word too, Lotus. I also adore parapluie. It's my favorite French word.

01 April, 2008 22:04  

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