Prior to going
to see the 20 million daffodils blooming on hillsides, woodlands, and valleys
at Gibbs Garden in Ballground, GA, I visited the garden’s website (www.gibsgardens.com) to find out more about the place my
neighbor and I and two of her friends (who are now my friends, too) were going.
On the website, I found a couple of lines from a poem written by William Wordsworth and published
in 1807.
Since I loved the words in the poem, I searched for information about it.
I learned that the inspiration for the poem had come during a walk the poet had
taken with his niece Dorothy on April 15, 1802.
The two of them were enthralled by the “long belt” of daffodils growing
along the seashore. Wordsworth later wrote “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (also
known as “Daffodils”), which became his most famous work.
Since my humble words can't compare with those of the famous poet, I'll gladly let his words speak for me. Even though, like Wordsworth, I am no longer at the site where I first saw the acres of golden daffodils, I can still see them with my "inward eye." Like Wordsworth, the mental pictures fills my heart, again and again, with pleasure. I have no way of knowing whether or not such images caused Wordsworth to praise and thank the Creator for His work, but I know that, time and time again, they motivate me to praise His handiwork and to thank Him for the opportunity to see it.
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
