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Daffodils by William Wordsworth


Daffodils is one of the most popular poems in the English language, it is full of beautiful images, colours and lights described with gentle, poetic words. The sounds of the English words themselves, consonants and vowels, are worth listening to, even if you do not understand their meaning. 

It was composed by romantic poet William Wordsworth on  April 15th, 1802, when he was walking with his sister Dorothy around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District after the death of his brother. It is a poem about the seductive beauty of nature, about loneliness and memory. The poem is short, but it is full of literary words, so it is recommended for C1 students.  You will find words like: to wander, to float, o'er (over), a vale, a host, golden, daffodils, to flutter, breeze, to twinkle, the Milky Way, to stretch, never-ending [line], a bay, a glance, to toss [their heads], a sprightly [dance], sparkling [waves], in glee, [to be] gay, jocund [company], to gaze, oft (often), couch, vacant or pensive mood, to flash upon, inward eye, bliss, solitude.

Below you can watch the video published by RedFrost Motivation

Here you can find a deep analysis of the poem by PoemAnalyis.com.  You can also use the text and the recording in PoemAnalyisis.com to do a "shadowing" pronunciation exercise, that is, to read the poem at the same time as the actor and focus on the pronunciation and rhythm of the English language (you can watch a presentation about "Shadowing" as a learning task by Nuria Company in Charlas Educativas, beginning at 28:51, here)

If you enjoy listening to English poetry, you can try this video by Poet's Corner with 50 Classic Poems read by 12 celebrities like Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster or Gary Sinise. I particularly recommend it as a lullaby to have a delightful summer siesta.

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