Learning Path » 5B Interacting
CDelBianco - TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: THE SOLITARY REAPER – WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
by - (2010-09-24)
Up to 5B- Reading Poetry- Lines Written in Early Spring and The Solitary Reaper
Just reading the title, the reader may expect that the poem will be about a lonely reaper, and probably also about her work in the fields. The background of the poem will be the country and the simple life in the fields.
The speaking voice invites a passer-by to stop and listen to a reaper who is singing and working, alone, in the fields. He is enchanted by the beautiful voice of the solitary girl. In facts, he says that her the chant is even more pleasant than the one of the nightingale and of the cuckoo-bird.
The speaking voice asks himself what the song of the maiden is about and he makes some suggestions: is it about some sad memories? Or probably about some daily matters?
Then the poet goes away keeping her touching song in his heart.
This poem is organized in four octaves. The first one is an introduction: the poet describes the place and the scene he sees. The second one is a comparison between the beauty of the girl's song and the voice of a nightingale and of a cuckoo-bird. In the third stanza the poet makes questions about the content of the song that the reaper is singing. The last one is the conclusion of the whole poem.
The first and the second stanza are descriptive. The third and the fourth make the reader reflect with the speaking voice on the content of the sad song.
The sounds are soft and the vowels are long. This effect, and also the run-on-lines, may be connected to the sound of the melancholy chant. The exclamation marks at the end of the second and of the fourth line make the reader take part more in what is happening in the text, as if he or she was living the same scene described by the poet.
The most important figures of speech are the metaphors of the nightingale and of the cuckoo-bird that make the reader imagine the sound and the beauty of the girl's voice.
In the writing, a lot of deviations from the norm are used, probably to make the poem more solemn and melancholic, just like the mood of the writer.
The speaking voice invites a passer-by to stop and listen to a reaper who is singing and working, alone, in the fields. He is enchanted by the beautiful voice of the solitary girl. In facts, he says that her the chant is even more pleasant than the one of the nightingale and of the cuckoo-bird.
The speaking voice asks himself what the song of the maiden is about and he makes some suggestions: is it about some sad memories? Or probably about some daily matters?
Then the poet goes away keeping her touching song in his heart.
This poem is organized in four octaves. The first one is an introduction: the poet describes the place and the scene he sees. The second one is a comparison between the beauty of the girl's song and the voice of a nightingale and of a cuckoo-bird. In the third stanza the poet makes questions about the content of the song that the reaper is singing. The last one is the conclusion of the whole poem.
The first and the second stanza are descriptive. The third and the fourth make the reader reflect with the speaking voice on the content of the sad song.
The sounds are soft and the vowels are long. This effect, and also the run-on-lines, may be connected to the sound of the melancholy chant. The exclamation marks at the end of the second and of the fourth line make the reader take part more in what is happening in the text, as if he or she was living the same scene described by the poet.
The most important figures of speech are the metaphors of the nightingale and of the cuckoo-bird that make the reader imagine the sound and the beauty of the girl's voice.
In the writing, a lot of deviations from the norm are used, probably to make the poem more solemn and melancholic, just like the mood of the writer.