DAFFODILS

DAFFODIL

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Daffodils with all their pristine beauty say "spring".  

After reading Wordsworth's simple but elegant poem once again I realize how art and nature can intertwine and etch our psyche.  The poem reminds us of how nature can be a solice even when we are "on the couch in pensive mood" and it echoes in our mind when we see daffodils dancing o'er the hills reminding us of the power of poetry.

DAFFODILS
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.