138 WITH EARTH AND SKY 
—and then my breath comes quick as if I came 
suddenly on a cataract; and the cowslips run 
wildly out to meet me. Often had I seen them 
and often had I watched for them. When the 
year is young I eye the moist land where the 
cowslips light their camp fires. I must not miss 
the sight of one of them. To me the cowslip is 
as lovely as the daffodil. I will venture to speak 
my mind though, with sedate voice, lest William 
Wordsworth hear me and call me out his golden 
poem of the daffodils to rebuke me with that 
wondrous voice of poesy. 
“T WaNDERED LONELY as A CLOUD 
“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 daffodills; 
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: 
Then thousands saw I at a glance 
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 
“The waves beside them danced; but they 
Outdid 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: 
