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Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary and Analysis: "The Solitary Reaper"

This document provides a summary and analysis of William Wordsworth's poem "The Solitary Reaper". The summary describes how the speaker comes upon a beautiful Scottish girl singing alone in a field. Though he does not understand the words, her singing fills the valley with beautiful music. The speaker is left wondering what melancholy topic has inspired her song. He carries the memory of her singing with him as he continues on his journey. The analysis notes that the poem is based on an experience described by Thomas Wilkinson and explores how the speaker is left to imagine the topic of the unknown song.

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202 views

Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary and Analysis: "The Solitary Reaper"

This document provides a summary and analysis of William Wordsworth's poem "The Solitary Reaper". The summary describes how the speaker comes upon a beautiful Scottish girl singing alone in a field. Though he does not understand the words, her singing fills the valley with beautiful music. The speaker is left wondering what melancholy topic has inspired her song. He carries the memory of her singing with him as he continues on his journey. The analysis notes that the poem is based on an experience described by Thomas Wilkinson and explores how the speaker is left to imagine the topic of the unknown song.

Uploaded by

Kirran Khumar Golla
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary and Analysis

by William Wordsworth

"The Solitary Reaper"


In the first stanza the speaker comes across a beautiful girl working alone in the fields of Scotland (the Highland). She is "Reaping and singing by herself." He tells the reader not to interrupt her, and then mentions that the valley is full of song. 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. The second stanza is a list of things that cannot equal the beauty of the girl's singing: No Nightingale did ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands Of travellers 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.

In the third stanza the reader learns that the speaker cannot understand the words being sung. He can only guess at what she might be singing about: 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? In the fourth and final stanza the speaker tells the reader that even though he did not know what she was singing about, the music stayed in his heart as he continued up the hill: 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. Analysis "The Solitary Reaper" was written on November 5, 1805 and published in 1807. The poem is broken into four eight-line stanzas (32 lines total). Most of the poem is in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme for the stanzas is either abcbddee or ababccdd. (In the first and last stanzas the first and third lines don't rhyme, while in the other two stanzas they do.)

This poem is unique in Wordsworth's oeuvre because while most of his work is based closely on his own experiences, "The Solitary Reaper" is based on the experience of someone else: Thomas Wilkinson, as described in his Tours to the British Mountains. The passage that inspired Wordsworth is the following: "Passed a female who was reaping alone: she sung in Erse [the Gaelic language of Scotland] as she bended over her sickle; the sweetest human voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were heard no more" (as qtd. in The Norton Anthology English Literature). Part of what makes this poem so intriguing is the fact that the speaker does not understand the words being sung by the beautiful young lady. In the third stanza, he is forced to imagine what she might be singing about. He supposes that she may be singing about history and things that happened long ago, or some sadness that has happened in her own time and will happen again. As the speaker moves on, he carries the music of the young lady with him in his heart. This is a prevalent theme in much of Wordsworth's poetry. For instance, the same idea is used in "I wandered lonely as a cloud" when the speaker takes the memory of the field of daffodils with him to cheer him up on bad days.

Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary


"A slumber did my spirit seal" - One of Wordsworth's Lucy Poems, this piece examines the unpredictable nature of death. Because Lucy seemed so powerful and full of life, the speaker did not think she would ever die. "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" - This sonnet is unusual in Wordsworth's collection, because it is about the beauty of a city rather than the beauty of nature. "I wandered lonely as a cloud" - The speaker comes across a gorgeous field of daffodils, and is glad to know that he will have this memory to look back on during less happy times. "It is a beauteous evening" - The speaker and the daughter he has not seen in ten years take a walk along the ocean. Even though she doesn't experience nature in the same way he does, the speaker considers her divine. "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" - The speaker and his sister visit a natural spot that he had visited five years previously, and the speaker realizes that he experiences nature in a more mature way now. He comments on how much the memory of his first visit heartened him in his darker moments over the last five years, and looks forward to bringing this new memory with him into the future. The speaker is also glad to know that his sister will remember him after he has died. "Lines Written in Early Spring" - In this poem the speaker sits in the middle of nature, and yet is saddened at the thought of the division between the rest of humanity and nature.

"London, 1802" - The speaker asks John Milton to save humanity from itself. He feels that humanity is losing its connection to nature, and especially its virtues and morality. "My heart leaps up when I behold" - In this very short poem, the speaker suggests that children are actually above adults because of their close proximity to God and heaven, having recently lived there. Because of this connection, children are also closer to nature. "The Solitary Reaper" - The speaker comes across a woman working alone on the plains of Scotland. She is singing, but the speaker can only guess at what she is singing about because he cannot understand her language. At the end of the poem he is glad to take this new memory with him. "The Tables Turned" - In this poem the speaker tells his friend to stop reading books and instead go outside and be a part of nature. "The world is too much with us" - In this rather angry poem, the speaker is disgusted by people who prefer manufactured goods to the joys of nature. In the end Wordsworth chooses a state of disillusionment over disconnection from nature. "Three years she grew" - This poem describes the life and death of Lucy. Nature becomes enamored of Lucy and creates a contract with her: in exchange for enjoyment of the natural world's gifts, Lucy must die upon reaching maturity. "We Are Seven" - The speaker meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters before two of them died. She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing the speaker, who counts only five.

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