Poetry analysis - "The solitary reaper"

Just considering the title which is "The Solitary Reaper" I think that the poem is set in a rural place, because the reaper usually tills the land in the field.
The poet makes an interesting lexical choice when he writes the word "Solitary" because it may anticipate the theme of the composition which is the melancholy atmosphere. The speaking voice invites the passer-by to observe the girl who is working alone in the cornfield; also he asks to him to pass softly perhaps to not disturb the chant with noise. Her song is melancholy and creates an echo effect that can be heard in the valley.

Successively the poet compares the sing of the girl with a nightingale chant and also he says implicitly that the first one is better than the second. In the second stanza the poet introduces a theme that will be very important in the Romantic Poetry: the travel, in this case the poet choose a very far land both geographically and scenically.
In the third stanza he makes hypothesis of the possible content of the chant of the girl, and in the last octave the poet writes a conclusion saying that he continues to hear the music while he was mounting up the hill.

The poem is arranged into four stanzas consisting of eight lines each where the poet at first provides the reader with a description of the landscape and present the protagonist and in the last part he reflects on the possible theme of the song sung by the girl.
The poem is partly narrative and partly meditative. The reflection takes place at two different times in the poet: the first can be detected in the first stanza where the poet says "Stop here, or gently pass" and in the last two stanzas where there is also an interior meditation of the poet.

There are some important literary devices in the poem, for example the poet uses some rhetorical questions: "Will no one tell me what she sing?", "Familiar matter of to day?" and finally "That has been, and may be again".
The poet uses soft sounds to invoke the idea of kindness and lightness that predominate in the composition, but at the same time he uses many exclamation points perhaps to emphasize the attitude of attention that the reader or passer-by must have when sees the girl. The poet makes this choice perhaps to have a kind of direct dialogue with the reader and probably these rhetorical questions hide existential questions.

The rhyme scheme for the stanzas is ABABCCDD. The first and the third lines in the first and in the last stanzas don't rhyme, but in the other two stanzas they do it. The writer does this because the first and the third stanzas are focused on the figure of the reaper, and so he decides to make pauses to better observe the girl.

The poet refers to the girl with verbs with -ing form to give the reader the feeling of continuity and infinite, both in time and in space, the same feeling of open space is transmitted with the use of open and long vowels.
In the sentence "Breaking the silence of the seas, among the farthest Hebrides" the poet uses an hyperbole because although the voice of the reaper is not loud, it can be heard far away. There is also a metaphor when the poet compares the reaper's voice to other pleasant voices, for example that of a cuckoo bird.

Generally the semantic field of reference of the poem regards sounds and emotions and also the poet writes a lot of adjectives that add significance the thought of the poet and complete the sensation of melancholy.
In conclusion, the poet gives to the reader emotions typical of Romanticism: the relationship between man and Nature, the attention on History ("And battles long ago") and the sense of infinity.

Visentin Luca (23/09/2010)