I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

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I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud was written for the Algonquin Regional High School Freshman Chorale, conducted by Kathrine Waters, in 2007 and is my first work for choir.  I found this Wordsworth poem in an anthology I had while taking a poetry class and thought it would work well in a choral setting, and luckily I had the opportunity to do so for the freshman choir at my former high school. 

Premiered October 2007 by the Algonquin Regional High School Freshman Chorale, Katherine Waters-conductor, in Northborough, MA.

Text

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 shew 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.

-William Wordsworth