You see, he was not expecting to meet any one or to have any unusual experience.  He “wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills,” and his surprise was complete when he saw suddenly,—­“all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils, beside the lake, beneath the trees.”  You might have said that they were waving in the wind, but he saw them “fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

The daffodils as they waved and danced in the breeze suggested to him the experience which he had had on other walks which he had taken when the stars were shining, and he compares the golden daffodils to the shining, twinkling stars: 

    “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 daffodils were as “continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way.”  There was no beginning and no end to the line,—­“They stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay.”  He saw as many daffodils as one might see stars,—­“Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

The poet has enjoyed the beauty of the little rippling waves in the lake, and he tells us that

    “The waves beside them danced; but they
    Outdid 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:” 

The daffodils have really left the poet with a great joy,—­the waves beside the daffodils are dancing, “but they outdid the sparkling waves in glee,” and of course “a poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company.”  Had you ever thought of flowers as a jocund company?  You remember they fluttered and danced in the breeze, they lifted their heads in sprightly dance.  Do you wonder that the poet says of his experience, “I gazed—­and gazed,—­but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought”?  I wonder if any of you have ever had a similar experience.  I remember the days when I used to go fishing, and there is a great joy even now in recalling the twitter of the birds and the hum of the bees as I lay on the bank and waited for the fish to bite.

And what is the great joy which is his, and which may belong to us, if we really see the beautiful things in nature?  He tells us when he says

    “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.”

There are days when we cannot get out of doors,—­“For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood,”—­these are the days when we recall the experiences which we have enjoyed in the days which are gone,—­“they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude.”  And then for the poet, as well as for us, “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”