- Daffodils
- 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.
--William Wordsworth
I first heard this poem in one of my classes in college. I believe that it was the "Drama in Education" class that also included Puppetry and Storytelling. That class, along with the "Music in Education" "Rhythm and Dance" and "Children's Literature" was one of the most valuable classes I took at BYU based on how much I've used the information since. It was in that class that I first told the story of Prince Ivan and the Frog Princess, and learned some good techniques for keeping an audience. I also made a set of Peter and the Wolf puppets, and my cute little Hedgehog puppet. This particular assignment was to pick a poem, and read it to the class using techniques of Oral Interpretation. Somebody else picked this poem, and it stuck with me. I put the last stanza on one of the stickies that made my desktop wallpaper at the time.
"Farewell to the mountains whose mazes to me
ReplyDeleteWere more beautiful far than Eden could be;
No fruit was forbidden, but Nature had spread
Her bountiful board, and her children were fed.
The hills were our garners--our herds wildly grew
And Nature was shepherd and husbandman too.
I felt like a monarch, yet thought like a man,
As I thanked the Great Giver, and worshipped his plan.
"The home I forsake where my offspring arose;
The graves I forsake where my children repose.
The home I redeemed from the savage and wild;
The home I have loved as a father his child;
The corn that I planted, the fields that I cleared,
The flocks that I raised, and the cabin I reared;
The wife of my bosom--Farewell to ye all!
In the land of the stranger I rise or I fall.
"Farewell to my country! I fought for thee well,
When the savage rushed forth like the demons from hell
In peace or in war I have stood by thy side--
My country, for thee I have lived, would have died!
But I am cast off, my career now is run,
And I wander abroad like the prodigal son--
Where the wild savage roves, and the broad prairies spread,
The fallen--despised- -will again go ahead."
This poem was written by the great "Davey Crockett". Disney added music to it and the actor who played Davey sang the song as he waited for the last battle before he died at the Alamo.
My Mom sang it as we left Provo in 1954 on our way to Alabama and I remember her crying as she watched the Mountains and thought of her home and friends in Utah.
Randy