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Miracle on St David’s Day

Miracle on St David’s Day

“They flash upon that inward eye


Which is the bliss of solitude”
• The poem opens with a quotation from Wordsworth’s poem ‘The
Daffodils’ written about the daffodils in the Lake District. The flower is also the
The Daffodils by W.Wordsworth emblem of Wales, whose patron saint is St David. Wordsworth is saying that we
not only see but also absorb through our ‘inward eye’ the beauty of nature.

• The poem begins with a strong image, a metaphor describing a ‘yellow’ afternoon
An afternoon yellow and open mouthed which is personified as ‘open mouthed’. The image reflects the colour and shape of
with daffodils. The sun treads the path the trumpet shaped flowers in the sunshine. The sun, also personified, ‘treads’
among cedars and enormous oaks. among the trees. The scene reminds the poet of a house in the country, rich enough
It might be a country house, guests strolling, to employ gardeners whose ‘rumps’ stick up among the bushes while the house-
guests enjoy the gardens.
the rumps of gardeners between nursery shrubs.

• The first line of verse two is a harsh statement of fact – it is not a country house but
an asylum for the ‘insane’, the mentally ill. The writer is there to read poetry to
I am reading poetry to the insane.
them. She refers to four specific patients. The first, an old woman, interrupts her
An old woman, interrupting offers reading to offer her ‘buckets of coal’, a reminder here that Wales once had many
As many buckets of coal as I need. mining communities. In contrast a ‘beautiful chestnut-haired boy listens intently
A beautiful chestnut-haired boy listens yet later she is told he is schizophrenic, but this was one of his ‘good’ days.
entirely absorbed. A schizophrenic

• Using a metaphor to describe the effect of the sunlight coming in through the barred
window is a woman in ‘neat clothes’ who though present is ‘absent’ in every way
on a good day, they tell me later. but physically. The repetition of ‘not’ stresses the isolation of the woman, unaware
In a cage of first March sun a woman of her senses of hearing, sight and touch.
sits not listening, not seeing, not feeling.
In her neat clothes the woman is absent.
A big, mild man is tenderly led
• Finally a ‘big, mild man’ is led ‘tenderly’, gently in to hear. The bold statement ‘he
has never spoken’ is shocking. His hands too must be large and bear the scars of
to his chair. He has never spoken. his former work. They are ‘labourer’s hands’. He sits placidly, hands on knees, but
His labourer’s hands on his knees, he rocks ‘rocks gently’ feeling the rhythm of her poetry. To underline the atmosphere, she
tells us that she reads to their ‘presences, absences’ using an oxymoron to underline
gently to the rhythms of the poems.
their physical presence yet mental absence. She repeats the word ‘big’ to describe
I read to their presences, absences, the man and adds the adjective ‘dumb’ to emphasise his inability or choice not to
to the big, dumb, labouring man as he rocks. speak.

• Line 21 shocks us. This verse has not run on from the last, highlighting the sudden
change of mood and atmosphere. Using ‘s’ alliteration she stresses his sudden
He is suddenly standing, silently, movement, again referring to his size (’huge’) and in spite of the fact that he looks
huge and mild, but I feel afraid. Like slow mild, she still says ‘I feel afraid’. She uses two beautiful images of change to
movement of spring water or the first bird express his sudden speech: ‘slow/ movement of spring water’ and ‘first bird/of the
year in breaking darkness’. She likens the sudden beauty of his voice to the gentle
of the year in the breaking darkness, flow of fresh water from deep underground or the first dawn song of spring. The
the labourer’s voice recites “The Daffodils”. poem that breaks his ‘darkness’ is The Daffodils, that image of new life and beauty
and spring.

• The nurses are ‘stunned’, metaphorically ‘frozen’, unable to move yet ‘afraid’ in
The nurses are frozen, alert; the patients case he becomes agitated or even dangerous. His voice so long unused is ‘hoarse’
seem to listen. He is hoarse but word perfect. but he has remembered the poem perfectly. Appropriately and movingly he speaks
against the background of the asylum’s carpet of daffodils which are ‘still’, a word
Outside the daffodils are still as wax,
she repeats for emphasis. Using a simile she compares them to ‘wax’ as though
a thousand, ten thousand, their syllables preserved, and she cannot estimate the number. As Wordsworth said they are a
unspoken, their creams and yellows still. ‘host’. She quotes from Wordsworth again: ‘their syllables are unspoken’, they are
silent but the man ‘huge and mild’ speaks for and about them.

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