Spring is coming, spring is coming
Spring is coming? It’s already here! In fact, it became official on 21st March. But, I’ve drawn a picture of the wild daffodil and I thought that this little traditional song helps illustrate it! I love daffodils being called “daffodillies” in the lyrics.
Spring is coming, spring is coming,
Flowers are coming too;
Pansies, lilies, daffodillies
Now are coming through.
Spring is coming, spring is coming,
Birdies, build your nest;
Weave together straw and feather,
Doing each your best.
Spring is coming, spring is coming,
All around is fair;
Shimmer and quiver on the river,
Joy is everywhere.
This song is oft times attributed to the poet William Blake, but I can’t find proof of this. I lack the Complete Works of Blake and the library is closed due to lockdown. Therefore, I can’t bury myself in library books looking. It’s driving me daffy!
I want to know for sure. If you know, please let me know and I shall be very grateful. I know that schools and music educators teach it as a Traditional Folk Song—but did Blake write the words?
I have another question. Do pansies and lilies come through alongside daffodillies in spring? I thought they came later… just wondering. Perhaps change the words to crocus and snowdrops… or winter aconite and cyclamen… or primroses? If William Blake wrote the original, my apologies.
William Blake
William Blake, regarded by many as one of the greatest poetic and artistic geniuses of modern times, lived and worked in London. (Can we still refer to the 18th century as modern times?)
He was born at number 28 Broad Street (now Broadwick St), Soho, in the year 1757. They demolished his childhood home in 1968. What were they thinking?! Would you dare demolish Shakespeare’s birthplace?
Catherine Blake 1762-1831
In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, whom he would train to work as his skilled assistant in his engravers shop. He depended much on the support of his wife, who helped with the printing and colouring of his work—even finishing some drawings for him.
William Blake 1757-1827
Blake lived with his wife at number 13 Hercules Buildings, Hercules Street, SE1 in the then pastoral district of North Lambeth. Demolishment of the house took place in 1918 (they’re fond of destroying Blake’s houses, aren’t they?). Today there is now a housing estate where his home once stood.
Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields, the non-conformist graveyard, where you can find monuments to Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and the parliamentary Cromwell family, is also the final resting place of this great poet.
It is one of those places that when you enter it, it has ‘a feeling’. The light seems different, somehow.
On my stroll round Bunhill Fields, a squirrel asks me for a nut.
And he accompanies me on my walk to see an old headstone.
There is a small wreath of flowers beneath the headstone that tells you the great poet-painter lies nearby with his wife. I read the inscription, and the squirrel turns his attention to the morsel I gave him.
In 2018, they placed a ledger over the actual spot where William Blake rests. I pass the time of day, muffled behind a Covid mask, and chat with a gardener who tends Bunhill Fields, and he tells me that there are nine other souls who share his plot. The inscription is a quote from Blake’s famous Jerusalem.
The Native Wild ‘Daffodilly’
In Britain we have only one native wild daffodil. The popular name is the Lent Lily. The Scientific name is Narcissus pseudo-narcissus. I just call it wild!
It’s wild to be short!
Our native wild daffodil grows to a short 12 inches (35 cm) in height — it’s wild to be short! (written by a short person). They have a silver blue-grey-green foliage. The petals are pale yellow around the darker yellow of the distinctive daffodil trumpet. The gentle paleness of the petals and it’s shorter stature is a good way to differentiate them from their garden relatives.
Habitat
Ancient woodland is the preferred choice of habitat for the wild daffodil. And it thrilled me to stumble across groups of them, spreading out in compact clumps on a walk in Devon. Pastures and orchards are havens too, for this quiet narcissus.
Blooming everywhere
A century ago the Wild Daffodil would bloom everywhere, but nowadays is becoming much rarer, along with its shrinking woodland and orchard habitat. Devon, Wales and Cumbria remain the best outposts to see these beautiful wild flowers.
A woodland delight is stumbling across groups of wild daffodil in compact clumps on a walk in Devon.
Small corms of daffy info
Daffodils growing in wintry mountainous conditions of Wales contain high quantities of a compound called Galantamine with valuable use in medication for Alzheimer sufferers.
The National Trust in Cornwall working with volunteers has collected a phenomenal variety of daffodils from hedgerows to form a large heritage collection. So perhaps Cornwall is the place to go to see the best assortment of old and new cultivars.
It is astonishing to learn that Britain produces 90% of the world’s cultivar of daffodils! However, because of this year’s Covid lockdown, fields of daffodils remain unpicked.
Tomorrow it is the 12th April, and lockdown will ease with the shops opening again. Perhaps my local library will too? In which case, I can find out if William Blake wrote about ‘daffodillies’ in Spring is coming, spring is coming.
Spring has come! So, get out there and go see some wild daffodillies, if you can.
LesleyScoble.com 
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