Wordsworth's Daffodils

Question

Recalling Wordsworth and Daffodils
I walked by the hillside today
Were they really daffodils
That I met on my way?

I was glad and happy
Woken up a poet in me
Was it my imagination
Or the yellow flowers danced in ‘glee’?

I looked around to ask someone
None were around to laze
I looked at flowers and walked away
Not stopping there to ‘gaze’.

Anita_a · Accepted Answer

I sat with Wordsworth
And looked at his 'rainbow in the sky'
amonst his 'golden daffodils'
We talked about 'Lucy Gray'
And also 'solitary highland lass'
As he told me about
'lines composed a few miles
above Tintern abbey'.
and my heart really 'leaped up'
in utter joy for the insight
into his genius
of his 'english tongue' which was
'as merry as the birds in spring'.

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello Anita

I like the way you've made Wordsworth his own 'rainbow'.

On 'Daffodils', perhaps:

Woken up a poet in me] I'm not sure you can use 'woken' here, on its own; but you could say 'as the poet awoke in me', 'when the poet awoke in me', 'with the poet awoken in me', etc.

Or the yellow flowers danced in ‘glee’? ] To put a question, you need an auxiliary here: 'Or did the (yellow) flowers dance in glee?'; 'Or were the flowers dancing in glee?'; or you could say:

Was it my imagination?
Were the flowers dancing in glee?/Did the flowers dance in glee?

None were around to laze ] I think you mean 'no one happened to be passing some time in that spot'; but 'laze' doesn't quite work, after 'none were around'. Is there another way of putting it, I wonder.

I looked at flowers and walked away ] Usually you would put a 'the' before 'flowers'. 'I looked at flowers' has an interesting tone; but it sounds quite dismissive. I'm not sure that's what you wanted.

Daffodils are everywhere in southern England at the moment. (Though they're mostly much blowsier than the daffodils Wordsworth would have known: the wild daffodil here is smaller and more delicate than the municipal version). They all suddenly opened last week. Now though they're 'hasting away' (you probably know this poem by Herrick:

FAIR daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the evensong;
And, having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away
Like to the summer's rain;
Or as the pearls of morning's dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

MrP

Wordsworth's Daffodils

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