"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 113 



beauty." The very name of the daffodil touches 

 our imagination. It carries us to the Elysian Fields, 

 for the ancient Greeks pictured the meads of the 

 blessed as beautifully golden and deliciously fra- 

 grant with asphodels. The changes ring through 

 asphodel, affodile, affodyl, finally reaching daffodil. 

 Then there is one more quaint and familiar name 

 and personification, 



Daffy-down-dilly that came up to town 

 In a white petticoat and a green gown. 



The idea of daffodil as a rustic maiden was popular 

 in folk-lore and poetry. The feeling is so well ex- 

 pressed in Michael Drayton's sprightly eclogue 

 called "Daffodil" that it forms a natural comple- 

 ment to the happy song of care-free Autolycus just 

 quoted. This Pastoral captured popular fancy; and 

 it is just as fresh and buoyant as it was when it was 

 written three hundred years ago. Two shepherds, 

 Batte and Gorbo, meet: 



BATTE 

 Gorbo, as thou camst this way, 



By yonder little hill, 

 Or, as thou through the fields didst stray, 



Sawst thou my Daffodil? 



She 's in a frock of Lincoln green, 

 Which color likes the sight; 



