the solitary reaper by william wordsworth

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The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

The romantic era, often called the age of revolutions and not just the social and economic

revolutions but also a literary revolution, the age of the romantic poet. The Solitary Reaper

by William Wordsworth was written in 1805, during the first generation of romantic poets,

like many of his other poems, it expresses the benefits of work, solitude and being close to

nature and the countryside. Wordsworth wrote many of his poems in the language of the

everyday man, he was a revolutionary and believed in the power of the people. The Solitary

Reaper illustrates the beauty and importance of music found in nature and the solitude of the

countryside.

This poem of idyllic setting is a wonderful note of appreciation and at the same time a deep

feeling of unknown emotions for an unknown song by a reaper at solitude of the

countryside.

In the first stanza the speaker comes across a beautiful girl working alone in the fields of

Scotland -the Highland. She is "Reaping and singing by herself." He tells the reader not to

interrupt her, and then mentions that the valley is full of song.

Behold 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 profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

In the first stanza the scene is set of the rustic highland countryside in Great Britain,

illustrating the importance of solitude and song. Nature is characterized as simple and

peaceful in contrast with the harsh and black industrialised London of his time. “Reaping

and Singing by herself” symbolic of the solitude encountered in the countryside and the

cheerful mood of a rural area, that Wordsworth believed was very important and benefited

the everyday man. Solitude and peace were often hard to find in the London of his time and

even revel lent to today’s modern worker day world. Wordsworth did believe though that

there was no place greater than England.

The second stanza is a list of things that cannot equal the beauty of the girl's singing:

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.

The second stanza offers comparisons between far off tropical places and the countryside of

England. The speaker compared two tropical birds to the beautiful singing of the simple

rustic girl, a nightingale and a cuckoo. The speaker says that the sound is more welcome

than any chant of the nightingale to weary travellers in the desert, and that the cuckoo-bird

in spring never sang with a voice so thrilling. Concluding that tropical places are nothing

when compared with the simplicity and solitude found in the countryside .Where music and

expressive beauty are at its best in the solitude and peace only found in the countryside.

Wordsworth uses two images--"word pictures"--to describe how refreshing and

reinvigorating it was to listen to the melodious song of "the solitary reaper."

Firstly, A group of exhausted travelers when crossing the scorching hot Arabian desert

arrive at a nearby oasis to refresh themselves. As soon as they enter this cool and shady

retreat, they first hear the melodious song of the nightingale and immediately they feel