This was No.  VII. in the series of Poems, entitled, in the edition of 1807, “Moods of my own Mind.”  In 1815, and afterwards, it was classed by Wordsworth among his “Poems of the Imagination.”—­Ed.

  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 [1] daffodils;
  Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
  Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. [2]

  Continuous as the stars that shine
  And twinkle on the milky way,
  They stretched in never-ending line
  Along the margin of a bay:  10
  Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
  Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. [3]

  The waves beside them danced; but they
  Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: 
  A poet could not but be gay, [4] 15
  In such a jocund [5] 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, 20
  They flash upon that inward eye
  Which is the bliss of solitude;
  And then my heart with pleasure fills,
  And dances with the daffodils.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1815.

  ... dancing ... 1807.]

[Variant 2: 

1815.

  Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
  Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. 1807]

[Variant 3:  This stanza was added in the edition of 1815.]

[Variant 4: 

1807

  ... be but gay, 1836.

The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807.]

[Variant 5: 

1815.

  ... laughing ... 1807.]

The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal, under date, Thursday, April 15, 1802: 

“When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side.  We fancied that the sea had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up.  But as we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.  I never saw daffodils so beautiful.  They grew among the mossy stones, about and above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.  They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing.  This wind blew directly over the lake to them.  There was here and there a little knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway.  We rested again and again.  The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the sea....”

In the edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines