London:

Britain’s Lake District is seeking to update its image, and perhaps lure a new generation of visitors, with a rap version of William Wordsworth’s famously bucolic poem I wandered lonely as a Cloud. “So check it!” reads an interjection in the new version of the verse, written by Wordsworth in 1804 on the banks of Ullswater, one of the picturesque lakes which draws millions to the region of northwestern England every year.

The hip hop version is accompanied by a video depicting Sam the red squirrel mascot of the Lake District — renamed MC Nuts for the occasion — rapping and at one point break-dancing on the lake’s shores.

A spokesman for Cumbria Tourist Board, which has also rebranded itself as ‘GoLakes’, said the region cannot sit on its laurels.

“Wordworth’s daffodil’s poem has remained unchanged for 200 years.

To keep it alive for another two centuries we want to engage the YouTube generation, who go for modern music and amusing video footage on the web,” he said.

David Wilson, the Robert Woof Director of the Wordsworth Trust, noted that Wordsworth’s poem “always achieves very high ratings in any survey of favourite English poems”.

“Two hundred years after it was published, the poem is still reaching new audiences and inspiring people,” he said. “Part of our work here at Grasmere is demonstrating how Wordsworth’s poetry is relevant today and encouraging young people to enrich their lives by exploring his poetry in their own ways.”

Here are the old and new versions of the poem.

The 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.”

The rap: “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 trees...

The video is viewable on the GoLakes website at http://www.golakes.co.uk/wordsworthrap/ mt/lc/ss