Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteXII

[Composed 1804.—Published 1807.]

• 1I wandered lonely as a cloud
• 2That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
• 3When all at once I saw. a crowd,
• Critical Apparatus4A host, of golden daffodils;
• Critical Apparatus5Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
• 6Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

• Critical Apparatus7Continuous as the stars that shine
• 8And twinkle on the milky way,
• 9They stretched in never-ending line
• 10Along the margin of a bay:
• 11Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
• 12Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

• 13The waves beside them danced; but they
• 14Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
• 15A poet could not but be gay,
• Critical Apparatus16In such a jocund company:
• 17I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
• 18What wealth the show to me had brought:

• pg 21719For oft, when on my couch I lie
• 20In vacant or in pensive mood,
• 21They flash upon that inward eye
• 22Which is the bliss of solitude;
• 23And then my heart with pleasure fills,
• 24And dances with the daffodils.