Daffodils

Daffodils is one of the nation’s favourite poems, but we feel it can be improved by rendering it in COMPLICATED form. For those whose mental ear is not yet attuned to COMPLICATED, we include the original for comparison.

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.

I perambulated without specific objective, solitary in the manner of a formation of Cumulus
That maintains its height crossing geographical features of a varied topography
When suddenly my attention was drawn to a substantial number
Of aureate specimens of Narcissus;
In close proximity to the body of water, within the confines of the tract of woodland,
Exhibiting a rapid vibratory movement as a result of the atmospheric pressure gradient.

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.

Ongoing in the manner of the observable astronomical bodies
That constitute the galaxy in which we are located,
They were situated in a linear array of considerable length
At the perimeter of an indentation in the coastline:
104 were immediately visible to the observer,
Their inflorescences oscillating rapidly and rhythmically.

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:

The harmonic sinusoidal motion of the water surface exhibited a rhythmic movement; nevertheless they
Outperformed the scintillating fluctuations in joviality
A wordsmith would find great difficulty in being other than of genial disposition,
In a mirthful presence of association of that nature:
I observed the scene repeatedly – but gave no cognisance
To the possibility that my wealth of experiences had been greatly enhanced:

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.

In that frequently, when I am recumbent upon my chaise-longue,
Of an inattentive or reflective frame of mind,
They present brief mental visualisations
Of the sort which is one of the pleasurable benefits of being unaccompanied;
And then my mood becomes euphoric
And provides a terpsichorean accompaniment to the aforementioned flowers.

Daffodils (William Wordsworth)
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