It’s a Daffodil Day on the Upper West Side: Wordsworth

By Carol Tannenhauser

This season’s daffodils are blooming all around Central Park, offering bright yellow evidence that this not-so-gentle winter is finally coming to an end. Also known as Narcissus, daffodils are widely considered symbols of hope, rebirth, and resilience, as they are one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring — and of joy, because of their glorious color, set against the newly greening fields and plants.

No one caught the spirit of the daffodil better than William Wordsworth in his poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” also called, “Daffodils.”

Enjoy the poem below — and do yourself a favor — take a walk and find the daffodils that are all around the neighborhood these days. When you do, send us your impressions and photos.

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
By William Wordsworth

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.

Two Photographs by Amy Robbins:

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