Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Solitary Reaper’ is a poem by William Wordsworth written in 1805 and published in 1807 in his poetry collection Poems: In Two Volumes. It is considered one of his best-known works. The poem was inspired by Wordsworth’s trip to Scotland in 1803 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Another inspiration was his friend and author Thomas Wilkinson’s Tours to the British Mountains, which described a reaper's song in Scottish Gaelic. The passage that inspired Wordsworth is the following: "Passed a female who was reaping alone: she sung in Erse (the Gaelic language of Scotland) as she bent over her sickle; the sweetest human voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were heard no more". Thus, this poem is unique for it is not based on the poet’s experience but on his friend’s.
Themes of The Solitary Reaper:
The poem stresses the universality of music. The narrator witnesses an unknown solitary reaper girl working in her field and listens to her song. Though he fails to understand the song, the melody of that song makes it memorable. The poem suggests the ability of art to transcend cultural boundaries and even language itself. The poem also touches on the theme of the limits of poetry and language. The narrator tries everything possible through his poem to describe her song but fails. The poem also contrasts active participation with nature and remaining passive as an observer. The narrator finds the reaper girl and her voice exceptionally beautiful while she continues working in her field and suggests that the beauty she emancipates is that of nature. Being actively involved in her physical labor, she is closer to nature. On the other hand, the narrator, observing the reaper girl is just an observer of nature and not an active part of it.
Structure of The Solitary Reaper:
The poem is a lyrical ballad. The 32 lines of the poem are composed in four Octaves following a consistent pattern. However, there is some variation from the traditional ballad. Ballads follow the common meter with iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter in the alternating lines. Instead of following the common meter, Wordsworth used iambic trimeter in the fourth line of each stanza while all other lines are written in iambic tetrameter. In addition, Wordsworth also used trochees at some places allowing the narrator to have a conversational tone. The rhyming scheme also varies with that of traditional ballads. The first four lines of each octave follow ABAB while the next four lines follow the couplet rhyme of CCDD.
The poet used Apostrophes, Allusion, Enjambment, Caesura, and Alliteration in the poem.
Summary of The Solitary Reaper:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-8
“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.”
The narrator begins with an apostrophe as he directly addresses the reader. The narrator comes across a beautiful girl (Lass) 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. The reaper girl is immersed in her work of cutting and binding while singing a melancholy song while the narrator is so struck by the sad beauty of her song that the whole valley seems to overflow with its sound. The poet used enjambment in lines 1 and 7, while all other lines are end-stopped. The sound of /i/ (assonance) keeps repeating throughout the stanza offering a melody. The narrator creates imagery of green fields in the mountains where a solitary young girl is toiling and drags the reader to cherish her song with the help of an apostrophe.
Stanza 2 Lines 9-16
“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 narrator then offers a list of things that cannot equal the beauty of the girl's singing. He compares the young woman’s song with ‘Nightingale’ and ‘Cuckoo,’ the birds known for their sweet voices. He asserts that the girl’s song is much sweeter than the sweet songs of any nightingale or cuckoo. He is utterly enchanted that he says that her voice is so thrilling and penetrable like that of the Cuckoo Bird, which sings to break the silence in the ‘Hebrides’ Islands. The Arabian sands and Hebrides Islands symbolize the uniqueness of the girl’s song which cannot be imitated by any nightingale or cuckoo in the vast expanse between Arabia and Scotland (Hebrides mountains). The narrator continues the strongly effective imagery and pulls the reader further into the mesmerizing effect of the reaper girl’s song as if the reader can listen to her now.
Stanza 3 Lines 17-24
“Will 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?”
The narrator uses Apostrophe again and asks the readers if they can tell him the meaning of the reaper girl’s song. The reader learns that the speaker cannot understand the words being sung. He can only guess at what she might be singing about. The narrator continues the reader in the imagery which appears so lively. He shows his frustration as he fails to understand the Scottish dialect the girl is singing. He notices the ‘plaintive number’ and melancholy strain of the song, the narrator speculates that her song might be about some past sorrow, pain, or loss ‘of old, unhappy things‘ or battles fought long ago. Or perhaps, he says, it is a humbler, simpler song about some present sorrow, pain, or loss, a ‘matter of to-day.’ He wonders if the girl is singing about a loss of the past or something that may happen again.
Stanza 4 Lines 25-32
“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 listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.”
In the fourth stanza, the narrator breaks the illusion of the imagery of the present and clarifies that he is not in the valley, watching the girl. Rather, he mentioned an old memory when he heard the song of the solitary Highland Lass. He tells the reader that even though he did not know what she was singing about, the music stayed in his heart as he continued up the hill. He says that when he was there, he tried to understand her song and share her pain but failed. He concluded that whatever she was singing about, it would not end. Even when he left and mounted up the hill he could still hear her voice coming amongst the produce, she was cutting and binding. Though the poet left that place, the song remained in his heart, long after he heard that song. Despite that strong effect, the narrator failed to describe what the song was about thus admitting to the limits of his poetry.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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