Now let us get the main ideas in the story which the poet tells us of his adventure.  “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills,” “I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils,” they were “beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”  They reminded me as I saw the beautiful arched line of “the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,” because “they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay”; and as I watched “ten thousand” I saw, “tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”  And then they reminded me of the waves which sparkled near by, “but they outdid the sparkling waves in glee,” and in the happiness which was mine, “I gazed—­and gazed,—­but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought.”  And that happiness I can depend upon when upon my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, for “they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude,” and my heart will fill with pleasure and dance with the daffodils.

These, then, are the big ideas which the poet has,—­he wanders lonely as a cloud, he enjoys the great surprise of the daffodils, the great crowd, the host, of golden daffodils, fluttering and dancing in the breeze; he thinks of the stars that twinkle in the Milky Way, because the line of daffodils seems to have no beginning and no end,—­he sees ten thousand of them at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance.  And as he looks at them he thinks of the beauty of the sparkling waves, and thinks of them as they dance with glee, and he gazes and gazes without thinking of the wealth of the experience.  But later when he writes the poem, he tells us of the wealth of the experience which can last through all of the days when he lies on his couch in vacant or in pensive mood, for it is then that this experience flashes upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude, and his heart fills with pleasure and dances with the daffodils.

Now let us say it all over again, and see how nearly we are able to recall the story of his experience in just the words that he used.  I will read it for you first, and then you may all try to repeat it after me.

The teacher then reads the whole poem through, possibly more than once, and then asks all of the children to recite it with him, repeating possibly the first stanza twice or three times until they get it, and then the second stanza two or three times, then the third as often as may be necessary, and finally the fourth.  It may be well then to go back and again analyze the thought, and indicate, using as far as possible the author’s own words, the development of ideas through the poem.  Then the poem should be recited as a whole by the teacher and children.  The children may then be left to study it so that they may individually on the next day recite it verbatim.  The writer has found it possible to have a number of children in a sixth grade able to repeat the poem verbatim after the kind of treatment indicated above, and at the end of a period of fifteen minutes.