1.0Wordsworth Editionshttps://wordsworth-editions.comrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="EecF05jqxu"><a href="https://wordsworth-editions.com/william-wordsworth-250/">William Wordsworth 250</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://wordsworth-editions.com/william-wordsworth-250/embed/#?secret=EecF05jqxu" width="600" height="338" title="“William Wordsworth 250” — Wordsworth Editions" data-secret="EecF05jqxu" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); /* ]]> */ </script> https://wordsworth-editions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1931_WWWeb.jpg20001000In normal times, many and loud would have been the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth, centred around his long-time home in Grasmere, Dove Cottage, in the wider area of the Lake District, nationally and internationally. Wordsworth is one of the few poets known to and loved by a wide public, particularly through a tiny poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, written for and about this very time of year. One of several ‘Poems of the Imagination’, it has indeed seized readers’ imaginations. Perhaps it is because that image of ‘a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils’ is redolent of the plenitude of Spring. Seeing a mass of daffodils, primroses, cowslips, and celandines can’t help but cheer us. Here is life, and hope, a new season coming, the singular brightness of yellow. Wordsworth captures this quite simply. David Hockney recently sent just such an image of daffodils, painted on his iPad, winging around social media, vibrant, defiant, and again, simple, with the message, ‘Do remember, they can’t cancel the Spring’.