'Cove' vs 'Bay'

[Tom]

Hi

Bay and Cove

I only understand these two words only in my imaginations. Would you say they are synonymous for a non-geographical man? Can they be seen in a picture or are they too enormous for it?

Also, were the daffodils along the lake or the bay?

I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
[color=red]Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
[color=red]Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

Many thanks,

Tom

[Skrej]

Hah, I think this could be another beach vs. shore debate! :roll:

For the most part, yes, I think the two are interchangeable. I believe the actual differences have to do with size, with a cove being slightly smaller and more secluded than a bay, but the definitions are certainly very loose, and not worth debating.

In the poem you quote, “Daffodils”, by William Wordsworth (what a great name for a poet, no?!) the daffodils are along the bay of the lake.

The lake he’s referring to apparently has a bay on it.

A bay or cove is just a part of a body of water that sort of sticks off to the side of the main body of water.

Here’s an map showing several bays and coves of different sizes. I just randomly chose this one, but keep in mind a bay or cove doesn’t have to be off of the ocean. Any body of water large enough to have recessed areas can have bays and coves. I just had problems finding a good picture of a lake bay on the Internet.

[Jamie_K]

My dictionary calls a cove “a small sheltered bay”. I always think of a cove as being similar to a cave, while a bay is open.

[MrPedantic]

A passage from Wordsworth’s sister’s journal (Thurs April 15th, 1802) may be of interest here:

@Dorothy Wordsworth

The wind seized our breath the Lake was rough. There was a Boat by itself floating in the middle of the Bay below Water Millock. We rested again in the Water Millock Lane. The hawthorns are black and green, the birches here and there greenish but there is yet more of purple to be seen on the Twigs. We got over into a field to avoid some cows—people working, a few primroses by the roadside, woodsorrel flower, the anemone, scentless violets, strawberries, and that starry yellow flower which Mrs C. calls pilewort.

When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them.

There was here and there a little knot and a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unity and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea.

“Pilewort” was apparently Wordsworth’s favourite flower (Ranunculus ficaria, lesser celandine); through a misunderstanding, the unrelated greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) is depicted on his tombstone.

MrP

[Yankee]

@Jamie (K)

“a small sheltered bay”

That’s also the way I think of a cove.
.