Solitary Reaperby William Wordsworth

The PoemBehold her, single in the field,  Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself;   Stop here, or gently pass!Alone she cuts and binds the grain,          And sings a melancholy strain; O listen! for the Vale profoundIs overflowing with the sound  No nightingale did ever chantMore welcome notes to weary bands Of Travellers in some shady haunts Among Arabian SandsA voice so thrilling no’er was heardIn spring time from the cuckoo-bird

Continued Breaking the silence of the seas Among the farthest HebridesWill no one tell me what she sings?— Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago:   Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again?Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang   As if her song could have no ending; I saw her singing at her work,   And o'er the sickle bending;— I listen'd, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill,   The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.  

Summary Behold her, single in the field,  Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself;   Stop here, or gently pass!

• The poet asks his listener to behold a "solitary Highland lass" reaping and singing by herself in a field. He says that anyone passing by should either stop here, or "gently pass" so as not to disturb her.

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,          And sings a melancholy strain; O listen! for the Vale profoundIs overflowing with the sound 

• As she "cuts and binds the grain" she "sings a melancholy strain," and the valley overflows with the beautiful, sad sound. 

No nightingale did ever chantMore welcome notes to weary bands Of Travellers in some shady haunts Among Arabian Sands

• The speaker says that the sound is more welcome than any chant of the nightingale to weary travelers in the desert. 

A voice so thrilling no’er was heardIn spring time from the cuckoo-birdBreaking the silence of the seas 15Among the farthest Hebrides

Even the spring bird Cuckoo could not produce such a magical effect as the maiden's song cost on the poet.

Will no one tell me what she sings?— Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago:

Impatient, the poet asks, "Will no one tell me what she sings?" He speculates that her song might be about "old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago.

Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again

The poet again asks what the reaper is singing? He imagines it to be about more humbler like familiar matters of today.

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang              As if her song could have no ending; I saw her singing at her work, And o'er the sickle bending;—

Whatever she might be singing about, he is captivated by the woman’s singing during her work.

I listen'd, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill,                               The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.

Afterwards, when he was climbing the hill he could not hear that song any longer. But he was still feeling the sweet vibrations of that music in his heart. The sweet memory of that song had become a permanent source of joy.

Poet • William Wordsworth(1770-1850) was born in England. Wordsworth

was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement. Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life. A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness

and a love of simplicity.

Analysis • "The Solitary Reaper" is a ballad by English Romantic poet William

Wordsworth, and one of his best-known works in English literature. In it, Wordsworth describes in the first person, present tense, how he is amazed and moved by a Scottish Highlands girl who sings as she reaps grain in a solitary field. The Solitary Reaper" is one of Wordsworth's most famous post-Lyrical Ballads lyric . The words of the reaper's song are incomprehensible to the speaker, so his attention is free to focus on the tone, expressive beauty, and the blissful mood it creates in him. The poem functions to 'praise the beauty of music and its fluid expressive beauty, the "spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion" that Wordsworth identified at the heart of poetry.

Ballad • A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were

particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century.

Here is an example:I'll tell a tale, a thrilling tale of love beyond compare I knew a lad not long ago more gorgeous than any I've seen.And in his eyes I found my self a 'falling in love with the swain.Oh, the glorious fellow I met by the ocean with eyes of deep-sea green!

Poetic devices • A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story

or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea.

The use of metaphors were seen when the poet compares the voice of the reaper to other beautiful voices, such as those of a 'Cuckoo-bird in the spring-time' and the voice of a 'nightingale‘

AlliterationIn language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. e.g. - And sings a melancholy strain;

Rhyme scheme• The poem follows a certain rhyme scheme which is

ABABCCDD, though in the first and last stanzas the A rhyme is off ( field/self and sang/work). E.g.-

Behold her, single in the field,  A Yon solitary Highland Lass!  BReaping and singing by herself;    AStop here, or gently pass! BAlone she cuts and binds the grain,    C      5And sings a melancholy strain;  CO listen! for the Vale profound DIs overflowing with the sound D

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