The Solitary Reaper
BY
WILLIA M WORDS WORTH
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.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travelers 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.
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?
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.
“The Solitary Reaper” is made up of four octaves (four stanzas having eight lines each),
primarily written in iambic tetrameter and generally following the rhyme scheme of ababccdd.
Romantic ballad.
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /i/
in “Behold her, single in the field” and the sound of /o/ and /a/ in “Yon solitary Highland Lass!”
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the
sound /r/ in “Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain” and the sound of /m/ in “Or is it some more
humble lay”
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick
succession such as the sound of /p/ in “Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow” and the sound of /n/
in “No Nightingale did ever chaunt”
The tone is plaintive, like the song the reaper sings. The poet imbibes the haunting sadness with
fond remembrance. Hence, the tone is plaintive and reminiscent. A hint of sadness punctures the
narrative.
Lexical Analysis
The major lexical words that may give clue to the meaning are: 1.Solitude: solitary, single,
alone by herself. 2.Music and song: singing, sings, sang, strain, sound, lays, notes, music,
silence, chant, voice, number, lay. 3.Pleasure and pain: melancholy, thrilling, plaintive,
unhappy, sorrow, loss, pain 4.Space and time: yon, here, Arabian sands, spring time, farthest,
Hebrides, old, far off, long ago, today, hill, long after 5.Adjectives: some, no one, whatever
6.Verbs of action: behold, stop, pass, reap, cuts and binds, listen chant heard, tell, bend,
mounted. 7.Collocations: melancholy strain, welcome notes, plaintive numbers, humble lay, old
unhappy far off things. 8.Words joined by ‘and’, ‘or’(doubling): reaping and singing, cuts and
binds, loss or pain, motionless and still.
Syntactic Analysis
Use of imperative:
The poem begins with an imperative construction and the whole of the first stanza employs
verbs in the imperative form. The standard purpose of the imperative form is to command or
request. But, here the poet uses for calling the attention- a visual image is created as if someone
is calling to pay attention on something.
Inversion:
There are three instances of it in the poem. They are ‘ alone she cuts and binds’, And over the
sickle bending, ‘This music in my heart I bore’ Here, the inversions are used for the purpose of
emphasis. Poet deviates from the normal sentence structure to give importance to certain ideas
by putting the emphasized word in the beginning.
Sentence structure:
This is a symmetric poem of four stanza each stanza divided thematically more or less into
halves of four lines each. Between the stanzas, sentence structure changes to suit the changing
requirements of the poet. Thus, in the first stanza inversion is used to catch our attention while
in the second, which begins with a negative comparison construction. ‘Avoice so thrilling ne’er
was heard’from this declarative sentence we move on to an interrogative sentence where the
poet wants to know the theme of the song. After a couple of guesses he uses surmise as a
structural device for the progression of the poem. The first stanza employs a series of coordinate
constructions. It is used to narrate speaker’s views and describe the events.
Voice and tense:
The poet uses passive voice to give importance to the music in the second stanza and it is the
shift from the reaper who was important in the first stanza. The significant point about the
poet’s use of tense is that we find all tenses used in the poem past, present and future as far as
the time reference is concerned- “has been and may be again”. Postmodification has been
systematically used (behold her, single in the field, the vale profound, nettles long ago etc.) it
has also been used for effects and highlights of its significance as well as to use it as narrative
device in the context of reminiscences as the present one. In the analysis of this sort, then, we
can, corroborate, many of the conclusions of standard criticism in a systematic and in a
convincing way.
Fourgrounding:
The differentiating factor between poetic and non- poetic language has been termed by the
Prague school of literature as “Foregrounding”. The function of foregrounding is to attract the
readers’attention towards the subject matter of the poem. Linguistic deviations have a very
important psychological consequence for the reader because they are easily noticeable or
foregrounded. It requires then our attention to take note of those parts of texts that are heavily
foregrounded
The Solitary Reaper was written by Wordsworth in 1805 and was later published in the
collection Poems, in two volumes, in 1807. It comprises eight stanzas, each stanza containing
four lines each. The poem is composed in the typical romantic meter of iambic tetrameter and
rhyming couplets, which help build the sense of rhythm throughout the poem. Each of the
poem’s stanza comprises an alternate rhyme scheme of ABAB and CCDD; however, in the first
and last stanza, the ‘A’ rhyme is off. Like all of Wordsworth’s poems, this too has the unique
Wordsworthian poetic diction.
1)Assonance
This is when two or more words in proximity repeat vowel sounds. For example:
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound
2)Hyperbole
This figure of speech involves exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis. For example,
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 poet says that the Highland girl's voice is so beautiful that it is enough to break the calm
stillness of the seas, even as far as the Hebride islands (off the coast of Scotland). This
exaggeration serves to prove the beauty of the girl's singing.
3)Metaphor
This involves a comparison between two contradictory elements. In the poem, Wordsworth
compares the girl's singing to that of the nightingale and the cuckoo bird.
4)Apostrophe
This is when an author or poet addresses an imaginary character or a character who is not
present in the story.
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Here, Wordsworth is addressing the reader and drawing the reader's attention to the beauty of
the Highland girl's singing.
5)Imagery
Imagery is figurative language used to appeal to our senses. For example,
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
Above, the poet describes the ministering nature of the girl's voice. Her singing is so beautiful
that it can refresh the spirits of tired travelers in a desert setting.