Promise of Spring

After a week of absolutely lovely weather, March decided that we needed some more winter, and the latter half of this week has been cold and stormy, with fierce winds and torrential rain.  But there is hope for spring!  The forsythia is blooming, the hedges looking like bright gold pompoms in a dreary landscape, and as I was walking back from class on Friday I came across a line of daffodils, nodding cheerfully, completely unfazed by the wind.  I couldn't resist - I had to pick a few!

The view from my window may be uninspired, the sky iron grey and unfriendly, and the need for our window draft-blockers still strong, but I have a little jar full of sunshine and hope.  What more could I ask for?

          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.