It's April, but it doesn't quite feel like spring yet. Sure--spring is coming--everyone knows that, but it's still more like a promise than a reality at this point, which I have found quite discouraging of late. But, today, this poem by Wordsworth came in my inbox; and as I was leaving for church this morning [to hear more about the joyfully realized promise of Easter Sunday that even Thomas gets to see and feel], I looked at my own daffodils--themselves "dancing" in today's strong winds--and I realized that they are trustworthy witnesses to the promise of spring. And even if spring feels a tantalizing way off just yet, it will arrive--my daffodils are proof. And I felt a little better. Sometimes you just have to agree with Thomas--seeing is believing, and I can never fault him for wanting signs of warmth and new life that he can touch, especially when good news seems so far away. The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
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. |