The Reaper
The Reaper - context Summary
Composed During Scottish Tour
Written after Wordsworth's travels in Scotland and inspired by his sister Dorothy's journal, this poem presents a solitary Highland reaper whose spontaneous song deeply moves the speaker. It situates a brief rural scene in which music, labor, and landscape combine, and the remembered melody endures within the poet. Composed in 1805 and published in 1807 in Poems, in Two Volumes, the poem frames simple experience as a source of lasting feeling.
Read Complete AnalysesBehold 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. 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. 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 today? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again! 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.
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