Seas of Yellow

Daffodils
William Wordsworth

Robinson, Mark. Daffodil field in South East Cornwall. 2009.
photograpgh. Flickr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cornwall_Daffodils.jpg

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.      


I love love LOVE this poem. Mainly because it remind me of the spring time at my grandparents farm. I don't know how, but there are daffodils everywhere. Literally everywhere--in little patches, big patches, and sometimes even just one or two. It's so pretty and calming to look out and see a sea of yellow and orange. When I read "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, I remember the spring and walking around the pastures and just being overtaken by all the daffodils. The farm has always been a place where I can go to so I can escape the world--even if it's just for a few hours. The speaker feels the same way. First of all, the speaker says he or she feels as "lonely as a cloud." When I look into the sky, I usually don't see just one single cloud. Usually there is a surplus of white balls in the sky. However, I do occasionally look up and see one single cloud. And I think how awful it would be to be the only one up there. It makes me think of being in a sea all by myself with no one else to be with. The speaker is lost and "lonely" until he or she find the daffodils. The speaker is comforted by the daffodils because of the way they are "dancing in the breeze." Yellow can be a comforting color; therefore, the speaker feels comfort in his or her state of loneliness. The speaker loses all sense of loneliness when looking at the daffodils. The dance the daffodils are doing also lifts his mood. He's taken to a place where he can just gaze at the pictures and forget his loneliness. The speaker even compares them to waves. Waves represent an always moving motion in the speaker's life that just keeps hitting and hitting and hitting him. He cannot control their motion or how strong they come in, he can only look over at the "dancing" daffodils and think about the peacefulness. The daffodils take him away into and alternate universe while he is getting hit over and over again by the rough waves. The speaker even admits that he or she can sit on his or her "couch" and think about the daffodils and be comforted. The speaker can think back to the joyous yellow sea whenever he or she is in a bad place. I mean, how can you be sad looking at daffodils. They are such a happy flower! They grow in the spring too, symbolizing rebirth and a chance to do things again. In the spring, the sadness and loneliness is supposed to vanish. The spring brings "pleasure" to the speaker because he or she knows that the season for being lonely is over. The speaker and I enjoy how we can look back to the sea of yellow in a dark day and feel better.