In our March issue, we look at outings where you can see flowers en masse. Here are a few poets who were inspired by the sight of hosts of golden daffodils, bluebells, heather and more.

Wordsworth’s Daffodils

We’ll start with the ‘daddy’ of flower carpets. “Continusous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Mily Way, They stretch’d in never ending line along the margin of a bay. Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” Wordsworth was wandering (lonely as a cloud) around Glencoyne Bay in Ullswater with his sister Dorothy when he spotted the daffs that were to inspire one of the most famous poems of all time.

Browning’s Snowdrops

Always here early in the year and then gone so fast, Robert Browning’s snowdrops in ‘The Lost Mistress’ are all about the fleeting magic of those carpets of little white bells, using them as a metaphor by which to compare his neverending love: “For each glance of the eye so bright and black, Though I keep with heart’s endeavour, Your voice when you wish the snowdrops back, Though it stay in my heart forever.”

Stevenson’s Heather

Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Heather Ale’ is all about the dark magic of an ale brewed from heather and the magical sight of the carpets of blooms that made them. “From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink long-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine.” The flowers, the ale and the legend are all intertwined in mystical fashion in this celebration of the wildness of the heather flower.

Anne Bronte’s Bluebells

Bronte views the bluebells not in carpets but each as its own little person: “A fine and subtle spirit dwells In every little flower, Each one its own sweet feeling breathes With more or less of power.” The sight of one amongst a carpet of other flowers brings back to her memories of childhood and deep, and slightly disturbed, feelings.

If you’ve been inspired to wander among the daffodils, too, turn to page 58 to read our feature, ‘Show Time’ by Cinead McTernan, in our March issue.

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