April is National Poetry Month, and since I posted a video on the “Don’t Quit” poem last week, I thought it would be fun to continue posting video poems every Friday of this month.

I’ve always loved William Wordsworth’s poem, “Daffodils,” a perfect tribute to spring that starts with the famous lines, “I wandered lonely as a cloud….”  Plus, Wordsworth’s birthday was on Wednesday, April 7, so this post is also a tribute to him as an English Romantic poet.  Be inspired by the beauty, warmth, and colors of spring!

What poems do you love? Share them with others in Beliefnet’s Community forum.

Here’s a version of the poem read by the actor Jeremy Irons:

Here’s the text of the entire poem:

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.