Lost and Lonely

I set out on my cross country skis with a snippet of a Wordsworth poem. (The poem is actually set in spring—see full version below—but the opening lines seemed to belong to the wide and empty expanse of a golf course off-season.)

I got my close-in shot:

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But when I backed off for the long shot, my camera battery died. So I went back the next day, found the same tree but no poem.

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Maybe another skier took it. Or else it’s floating from snow drift to snow drift, waiting for spring, waiting to be discovered by a golfer searching for a lost ball.

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.

3 Comments

  1. Theodora

    Yesterday I was reading about this study that showed how awe is the number one feeling with a protective effect for both the body and the mind. I thing this poem shows just that!

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