THE SOLITARY REAPER

This is one of the poems inspired by the tour Wordsworth made in Scotland with his sister Dorothy, in 1803. But the immediate suggestion came from his friend Thomas Wilkinson's Tour in Scotland which he has read in manuscript. "Passed by a female who was reaping alone, she sang in Ersen as she bended over a seckle, the sweetest human voice I've ever heard. Her strains were tenderly melancholic, and felt delicious long after they were heard no more".

As in Wilkinson's source, in this poem what matters is not so much the woman's singing as the poet's response.

[Look at the title]

The reaper: she is solitary (living alone; without companions; lonely; only one; seldom visited).

The expectation is: the poem speaks about the reaper.

[Read the poem (over and over again)]

The poem consists of four stanzas of eight lines each (octaves).

DENOTATION

1^st stanza: The poet invites the reader over the passer by to stop and look at the girl.

She is a girl, a young girl cutting the grain, by herself. She is obviously a peasant girl, therefore from a low and rustic life. She is Scottish, she comes from the Highlands, the mountainous region of Scotland. She is singing a "melancholy strain". The Vale rejoices.

The poem has a rural setting

The poet addresses an imaginary viewer of the scene so that he can visualize the scene.

2^nd stanza: Her song is compared to a Nightingale song welcoming tired travellers through Arabian deserts.

Again her song is compared to the Cuckoo's song in spring which brings news to the far away Hebrides Islands.

3^rd stanza: The poet makes hypothesis about the content of the song. His answer is: 1) perhaps she sings about "old, unhappy, far-off things" or about ancient battles; 2) about a "familiar matter of to-day" which seems to be said because "some natural sorrow, loss or pain".

4^th stanza: The last stanza is the conclusive one. In it, the poet says that whatever the theme of the song, the poet remembers the girl at her work, he says he sees her and listens and so he bears the music in his heart. But later on he could no longer hear the music.

[Phonological level]

The rhythm is the rhythm of natural (every day's) speech - there are three or four stresses in each line, but there is a rhyme scheme with a few exceptions: ABABCCDD.

Preponderance of the sound as in the first stanza. Alliterations such as: sings-strain. Phonological parallelism created also by the use of progressive aspect of the verb and coordinate sentences in the simple present. No Nightingale; Welcome weary; Silence sing sound sorrow.

[Syntactical level]

The syntax is very simple and so his language. It looks every day's. There are some moments of poetic evocation. Simple language: "cut and binds the grain", "humble lay", "familiar matter of to-day", "Yon solitary Lass", "vale profound", "chaunt", "shady haunt". Here it's interesting to notice that the poet uses certain verb tenses: the poem begins in the present tense, it continues in the present progressive (reaping, singing, overflowing) because it is as if the scene were taking place before his eyes. Others are in the simple present.

The scene anyway ends in the past tense because the vision has ended.

The shift in the tense of the poem takes place at line 24: "that has been, and may be again". The poet is thinking about the possible meaning of the girl's song.

The shift in verb tense suggests a movement from present reality towards an inner thought process.

Employment of imperative mood: it carries an emotional quality, it is an invitation of the poet to the reader.

[Semantic level]

The language is generally simple and every day language, but there are some moments of poetic evocation.

Poetry is born out of "emotions recollected in tranquillity". In this poem there's:

• - A reference to nature
• - A reference to humble people
• - A reference to feelings

[Rethorical level]

In the second stanza there is a comparison: two similes: the reaper's song is compared to:

• - The singing of a Nightingale
• - The singing of a Cuckoo bird

Therefore the poem deals with a peasant woman reaping alone in a field that becomes a symbol of the poetry. Whether is close is also close to the poet who, like an astonished child, knows how to look at things with new eyes.