THE END OF WINTER, HELLO SPRING - THE GOLDEN YELLOW DAFFODILS!!!!

I remember asking an older colleague during my first winter in Canada: "How long does it take one to get used to the cold in Canada". His wise reply was, "You can never get used to the winter in Canada". I spent six winters in Canada and somehow made it every time through the winter...how I used to look at the first signs of our tulip buds trying to thrust through the soil.......the surest sign of spring. The days would start to get longer then; you could leave for and return home from work during daylight, and the spirits would generally soar.

I believe winters in UK are not as bad as Canada - that is what I was told by the locals in UK on this trip. I reached UK on 01 Mar 09 and witnessed the slow change of seasons in my two weeks of stay there. I witnessed the blooming of the Crocus and Daffodils and really began to appreciate the poem, Daffodils, that I had read as a youngster in school. The daffodils really look beautiful especially with all the leafless trees, hedges and the dried up grass all around. Here is a my view of 'goodbye winter & hello spring' in Tattenhall village in the year 2009.



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

Comments

Indyeah said…
Beautiful!Wordsworth and beautiful pictures:)
Amazing combination:)
Balvinder Balli said…
Hi , i am in transit, will be getting back to regular blogging after a few days.
Reflections said…
So......soooo beautiful......I'm sure u wdn't get a more heart-felt comment than mine which comes from the desert where there is just 2-3 months of winter & 9 months of scorching heat. Nope...no other season inbetween. And even the winter here must be like mild summer in the places u r staying & stayed:-P

I too remember the daffodils poem by W. Wordsworth, one of the 1st poems we are forced to learn by heart in school but I particularly remember my English teacher describing the beauty of the flower & I wondering how it looked.
Thank U for showing me:-))....they are just like I always envisioned.....beautiful & like poetry:-)).
J P Joshi said…
Indyeah: I really enjoyed the daffodils on this trip and had a feast clicking photographs of them on my rudimentary digital camera - these photographs donot do justice to their beauty.

Balvinder: I realised; you know I am still stuck in Nagaland - waiting for you to move ahead from there.

Reflections: Yes, I can imagine, although passing through Dubai airport is an experience of the desert that one can never forget, but once you get airborne you can see the vast expanse - like we used to see in Jaisalmer and Uttarlai.

I too remember our English teacher trying to explain the beauty of William Wordsworth's poem to us, and we could never understand - however having seen the context and the place things make more sense now to even this person who is not endowed to appreciate poetry.
Piper .. said…
Ohh what truly beautiful flowers. I`m feeling happy just by looking at these :):)
J P Joshi said…
Piper: They were really very beautiful. You too must be eagerly awaiting the tulips and daffodils in your part of the country too. The winters are brutal there too, just like Toronto.
Usha Pisharody said…
Had a glimpse of the daffodils on an earlier post from the same place...

And I knew the host of golden daffodils would grace this space. Am only sorry that I got here a bit later to savour it :)

Gorgeous, the daffodils... And now one understands truly what a sight it must have offered to that Nature's Poetic Soul of Wordsworth, and why he had to immortalize them in that incredible piece of poetry!

Beautiful. Made my day!
J P Joshi said…
Usha: Thank you... you have a brilliant way with words. I am not very poetically inclined but then, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" - poems can express things from the heart. I don't have a well developed heart, and that is why I need to know the context, the place and have my brain too involved, to appreciate poetry. You are gifted on this account. I am learning.... thank you.