EAD OUT OF THE CAGE _Donn P. Crane_ 455
SANCHO FELL ON HIS KNEES _Donn P. Crane_ 464
THE HORSE BLEW UP, WITH A PRODIGIOUS NOISE _Donn P. Crane_ 475

THE 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
Outdid 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.

[Illustration: A HOST OF GOLDEN DAFFODILS]

When we look at this little poem we see at a glance that the
stanzas are all the same length, that the rhyme scheme is _ababcc_
(see "To My Infant Son," Vol. VI), and that the indentation at the
beginning of the lines corresponds with the rhymes. This poem,
then, is perfectly regular in form.

There are other things, however, which go to make up perfect
structure in a poem. First and foremost, the words are so arranged
that the accented syllables in any given line come at regular
intervals. Take, for instance, the first two lines of this poem.
Each line contains eight syllables. If you number these syllables
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, you will see that it is the second one each
time that bears the accent, thus:

I wan'dered lone'ly as' a cloud'
That floats' on high' o'er vales' and hills'.

Now, if you read the four remaining lines of the stanza you will
see that in each one of these the second syllable bears the
accent, until you come to the last line, where in the word
_fluttering_, which, by the way, you pronounce _flutt'ring_, the
accent is on the first syllable. If the poet did not now and then