"I wandered lonely as a cloud"

What can you do when the wind chill factor is 30 below zero and the damn polar ice caps refuse to melt? You can read poetry and dream of spring.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud"

I wandered lonely as a cloud  
That floats 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 on the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in ever lasting 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 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


By William Wordworth