DAFFODILS - WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

William Wordsworth, the great nature poet, was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumberland. He lost his father and mother at a very early age. Thanks to the generosity of his uncle was given a good education. He was educated at Hawkshead School and St. John’s College, Cambridge, His meeting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1795 was turning point in his life, in the sense that he decided to devote his life completely to poetry. Wordsworth and Coleridge together published The Lyrical Ballads in 1798. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southey as poet Laureate and remained in office till his death on 23 April 1850.

Though Wordsworth has written long poems, he is at his best in the shorter poems like ‘Tintern Abbey’ and ‘Intimations of Immortality’. By writing a number of short poems like ‘The Daffodils’, ‘The Solitary Reaper’ etc.: he has shown in practice that beautiful poems can be written on ordinary subjects and in ordinary language; but they can be made beautiful with the colouring of the poet’s imagination. According to Wordsworth ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility’.

Once, Wordsworth was walking alone through a beautiful landscape of the countryside. All of a sudden he saw a large number of daffodils by the side of a lake. They were fluttering and dancing in the breeze. They were as numerous as the stars and stretched in a never ending line. It seemed to the poet that he saw at least ten thousand flowers at a glance. The waves of the lake were also dancing, but the daffodils surpassed them. After watching such a fascinating scene a poet like Wordsworth could not do anything but be happy (gay). At that moment he did not realize that the beautiful sight was going to be a source of joy for him in the future also. Afterwards on many an occasion, he tried to recollect the scene. Every time he did it his heart was filled with joy.

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