THE SOLITARY REAPER

Right from the title I expected  the poem to deal with a solitary woman who is reaping and singing. "Solitary" is an adjective that recalls the feeling of solitude. "reaper" remembers a country side activities.

The poem is divided in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each.

In the first stanza poet presents the girl. The poet meets the girl when he was walking in the countryside. This girl is reaping alone and she is the symbol of rustic life. The poet is attracted by the girl's melancholic song.

In the second stanza the girl's song is compared to nightingale's song. The poet believes that the song of the woman is better than bird. Therefore the song is compared to the cuckoo-bird that seems to disturb the silence of the Hebrides.

In the third stanza the poet wants to know the content of the song because he listens the melody but he doesn't understand the word.  He makes some possible hypotheses:

-the song recalls unhappy experience of the past

-the melody deals with a battles of a very distant time

This song captures him and the mining of the song becomes less important.

It enters in his heart forever. The poem ends with the poet's regret he can no longer listen to that song.

There are 3 or 4 stresses in each line. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCDD.

The language is generally simple and everyday language. In the first part of the poem the poet uses the present tense. It continues in the present progressive. In conclusion he uses the past tense because the vision has ended.

As far as the semantic level is concerned, we can find three important ones:

-  music (song, music, listen...)

-  nature (natural, hill, field)

-  feelings (unhappy, melancholy, hearth...)

Among the three levels the most important one is the one of feelings. As a consequence the poem focuses on emotions.

There are 2 simile in the second stanza. The woman song is compared to singing of nightingale  and of the cuckoo-bird. Therefore we can see an inversion in the tenth line of the fourth stanza.

The reaper girl becomes the symbol of the story.