Here we are...thinking of Spring!

From Melody Jenkins, Director of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library System:

     Spring is such a wonderful time of the year.  It brings "newness" to everything...plants, trees, animals and humans.  There is something about the way the world looks at this time of year that is very exhilarating.  The air just feels different; fresh and filled with the scent of flowers.
     My grandmother had a large bed of tulips and daffodils outside of her dining room window.  Growing up in Cincinnati, the sight of those blooming after a long, cold, dreary winter was so exciting.  I clearly remember gazing at them for hours.
     My 8th grade English teacher, Ann Brown, was very eccentric.  She made us memorize poetry and recite it in front of the class.  One of the poems that I recited has always stuck in my mind, especially at this time of the year.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I always have.

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

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 leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but 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.