Miracle on St' Davids Day

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Miracle on St. Davids Day by Gillian Clarke KEY
NOTES
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• Daffodils
• I wandered lonely as a CloudThat floats on high
  o'er Vales and Hills,When all at once I saw a
  crowd,A host of golden daffodilsBeside the
  lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing
  in the breeze.
• Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on
  the milky way,They stretched in never-ending
  lineAlong the margin of a bayTen thousand saw
  I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly
  dance.
• The waves beside them danced, but theyOut-did
  the sparkling waves in glee-A poet could not
  but be gayIn such a jocund companyI gazed-and
  gazed-but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to
  me had brought
• For oft when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in
  pensive mood,They flash upon that inward
  eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude,And then my
  heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the
  Daffodils.
• by William Wordsworth

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• MIRACLE
• Suggests an incredible moment or
• religious occurrence
• ST. DAVIDS DAY
• Patron saint of Wales
• Clarke is Welsh
• the poem Daffodils is
• what awakens the man

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• SUBJECT THEME
• First impressions it might be a country
• house invite curiosity (might). Mild shock
• really a mental hospital. Great
• compassion for patients. Poet
• recounting lived events and
• moment moved her.
• Dumb man suddenly recites
• Wordsworths Daffodils

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• TONE/MOOD
• Shock
• Compassion
• Memories
• Calm

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• VIEWPOINT
• First-person
• Clarke recounts her own
• experience

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• IMPORTANT QUOTES
• I am reading poetry to the insane
• cage of first March sun
• in her neat clothes the woman is absent
• A big, mild man is tenderly led
• /to his chair
• I read to their presences,
• absences
• He is hoarse but word-perfect

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LANGUAGE IMAGERY No rhyme emphasises
strangeness of event. he is suddenly standing,
silently alliteration of soft s sound echo
the description before that he is mild,
rocks gently.
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LANGUAGE IMAGERY Sentence lengths enhance
shock. Enjambment reflects leading image (stanzas
3-4). Colour imagery yellows, light, silence,
stillness. Cage metaphor.
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• About the poet
• Gillian Clarke was born in 1937 in Cardiff
• She was brought up speaking only English and
• learnt Welsh as an adult

• Questions
• With which other poem in the anthology do you
  most closely associate this?
• Give an example of a drive word which changes the
  tone of this poem.
• What is the effect of the poem on you? Were you
  moved?

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COMPARISON CHECKLIST

• Warning -gt Still I Rise -gt Mirror -gt Not My Best
  Side
• I Shall Paint -gt Warning
• The Road Not Taken -gt Warning -gt Mid-Term Break
• Miracle-gt Mid-Term Break -gt The Barn