C h r o n i c l e s ...

"I really don't know clouds at all...."

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high over vales and hills…”


The opening line to one of Wordsworth’s poems has been so strongly etched in my mind that decades after dissecting it in Sec.4, it leaps into my mind whenever I see clouds either in sky or on print. However, it is remembered but for the wrong reason.

It was a particularly difficult year for us offering English Literature as a subject at ‘O’ level and some students quickly jumped ship when the syllabus proved too daunting. Imagine having to “study” works of Thomas Hardy, Shakespeare, John Keats and William Wordsworth at the beginning of the fourth year of secondary school when you don't really have a firm grasp of the English language yet.

Coming back to remembering it for the wrong reason…. - if you are anything like me, you'll vaguely recall phrases like 'over vales and hills', what remains of the poem after it has long left your memory is the image of a lonely soul wandering aimlessly over a desolate landscape. But wait a minute. This memory fragment is flawed. Read in context, the author of the poem has an entirely different and happier message for the reader.

Wordsworth drew inspiration for “The Daffodils” when he and his sister chanced upon an open field of the flower. He compares their beauty and abundance to that of the heavenly stars. The beauty of a lake nearby, despite it sparkling waves, is no match for the brilliance of yellow “dancing in the breeze”. So choose to remember the daffodils! Doris Day did, ‘cos even the daffodils could hear her singing Secret Love in Calamity Jane.

The Daffodils

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.

Somehow, this particular segment from a Joni Mitchell' song lyrics also remains etched in my memory. Hence this article ends as it begins - 'I really don't know clouds at all.'

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.

Hear song by Judy Collins,

posted by Victor Lai @ 11:26 PM