Among the Daffodils

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/minow/121528693/

The other day Kevin, Penny, and I ventured out to discover the walking path along the Potomac. For us it was a walking path, but I guess people also bike, run, and probably speed-walk or roller-blade there. We let Penny out of her stroller for part of it to walk and enjoy the sticks, leaves, flowers, and grass. She really doesn't get to run free very often.

We walked farther than we probably should have. At the point where Kevin suggested we turn back, I said we should press on. Being 7 months pregnant, I have limits, but I don't always listen to my body. We should have turned back. We wound up walking past Roosevelt Island AND Arlington Cemetery, AND the Iwo Jima Memorial. It's a good thing we were going at Penny's pace, because my back already couldn't handle it.

But anyway, I just thought back on this walk and on the following Wordsworth poem, since today was grey and rainy, and I need a little beauty in my life.

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