A meditation on the enduring beauty of daffodils, it is not an obvious subject for the macho, posturing world of rap music.

But now William Wordsworth's most famous poem has been reworked and rewritten in a hip-hop style - complete with drum beat and quick-fire rhymes - in an effort to draw a younger generation of visitors to the Lake District.

Cumbria Tourism, which has released the new version of I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud to mark the 200th anniversary of the original, hopes the rap and accompanying video will appeal to the "YouTube generation".

What the foremost Lake Poet will make of the new version remains unclear.

The team responsible claims it stays true to the sentiment of the original, but Wordsworth purists may be shocked by the reference to daffodils "tossing up their heads like a pogo dance", and the hip-hop greeting "check it" thrown in near the start.

"Retina" is rhymed with "etcetera", not a word Wordsworth used frequently in his verse.

And the line "A poet could not but be gay" is dropped in favour of feeling "bright like sunbeam", perhaps in acknowledgement of the word's modern meaning, and the homophobia of hip-hop culture.

Even more bizarrely, the new version is accompanied by a pop video in which a giant squirrel - MC Nuts - mouths the words on the banks of Lake Ullswater.

It was while he was passing Ullswater on a stormy day that Wordsworth saw a "host of golden daffodils" which inspired the work.

A Cumbria Tourism spokesman said: "Wordsworth's Daffodils poem has remained unchanged for 200 years and to keep it alive for another two centuries we wanted to engage the YouTube generation who want modern music and amusing video footage on the web.

"Hopefully this will give them a reason to connect with a poem published in 1807 as well as with the works of Wordsworth and the stunning landscape of the Lake District."

Wordsworth's original

I wandered 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;
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 stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced,
but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:-
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.

New hip-hop version

I wandered lonely along as if I was a cloud
That floats on high over vales and hills
When all at once I looked down and saw a crowd
And in my path there was a host of golden daffodils so check it

The kind of sight that puts your mind at ease
I saw beside the lake and beneath the tress
And they moved me
Like they were based on the keys
They were fluttering and dancing inside the breeze and seemed infinite
Just like the stars that shine up in the belt of Orion across to the Milky Way
They stretched along the coast in a never ending line
All across the water marching across the golden silky bay

Must have been 10,000 I saw in my retina
No more than a glance then I register they're beautiful etcetera
I never knew in advance but they were tossing up their heads like a pogo dance

In a contrast to the plants, there were waves beside them
The way they crashed and sparkled added to the marvel
And the writer couldn't help but feeling bright like sunbeam cos the flowers and the waves they were quite someting yeah
Across the spot... just lost the plot.... just watched and watched all the yellow and green
And at the time I didn't need to pay them no mine but when I think back to the day it was a hell of a scene

So often when I'm on my couch just sitting
In a vacant mood or idle position
With nothing to do my face screwed - time ticking
I gotta rewind to my vision
I get a flashback
In my minds eye
Feel the bliss of solitude from the hindsight
My heart fills up until the pleasure has spilled yeah
I'm taking back to dancing with the daffodils... daffodils.... daffodils.... to fade