conjures up, for most of us, the first lines of William Wordsworth's Daffodils poem 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'.
Daffodils Poem - 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.
Incredible to imagine then that when this collection of William Wordsworth's poems was first published it wasn't well received.
The Wordsworth's Daffodil Poem is now so famous that it is taught in many English Literature classes in High Schools across the world.
Finding the Daffodils of Willilam Wordsworth
Do you want to find the Wordsworth's Daffodils? His sister
Dorothy Wordsworth
wrote about the Daffodils, that she and William saw on their walk in Gowbarrow Park on the shores of
Ullswater and it is these daffodils that are thought to have influenced William to write his Poem.
Cultivated daffodils line the roads of many Lakeland villages in spring, particularly in southern Cumbria around Levens and Underbarrow and Crook. Although these differ greatly from the wild daffodils, they are still a joy to see and are a real atrraction, especially when they bank a field of newly born lambs. Surely England at its best?
Personally, I have found wild daffodils to be more abundant in southern Cumbria. Indeed right on the edge of Cumbria, just south of Kendal Brigsteer Woods is an excellent spot to see them growing wild.
Dora's field (see photograph right), which once belonged to Dorothy and William, is in Rydal between Grasmere and Ambleside and now belongs to the National Trust, it was planted with daffodils, in memory of their daughter Dora.
Where are the best wild daffodils in Cumbria?
Do you have a favourite wild daffodil drive, walk or picnic spot, in Cumbria, to share?
