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Great Possessions
25
one of his simplest in inspiration—to show what I mean:
I wandered lonely as a cloudThat 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 shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay.I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.
"Only daffodils" you say? But he made them for himself and others an eternal possession of beauty and delight.
Those who have great possessions on these terms need never turn sorrowfully away when the command comes: "Sell all thou hast and give to the poor." For these are the inexhaustible treasures of the soul, and are in their nature communal; and happy is the man or nation that finds them.
