Thursday 15th [. . . .] When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow
park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the
lake had floated the seeds ashore & that the little colony had so sprung
up--But as we went along there were more & yet more & at last under
the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along
the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road [the end
we did not see]. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they
grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads
upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed &
reeled & danced & seemed as if they veryily laughed with the wind
that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever
changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. there
was here & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher
up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity of
life of that one busy highway. We rested again & again.
The Bays were stormy, & we heard the waves at different distances and
in the middle of the water like the Sea. |