William Wordsworth’s: “The Solitary Reaper”

Before reading the poem “The Solitary Reaper” by William Wordsworth, the reader is provided with a clue as to what the poem is about through the title alone. If one were to look up the definition of “solitary” and “reaper” they would discover that to reap is to harvest a crop, in this case it would be to harvest within nature, and to be in solitude is to be by oneself, alone with nature. For a person to pour out their true self while being alone with nature is something Wordsworth wished all would partake in.

This poem differs from the majority of Wordsworth’s written works since he tends to write mostly of his own personal experiences with nature. Although he is writing of his experience of walking through the fields and hills the subject is primarily focused on the reaping vocalist. Her voice, the state he finds her in, physically cements his body to the ground that he has to listen; she’s captivated him with her song.

[9] No Nightingale did ever chaunt

[10] More welcome notes to weary bands

[11] Of travellers in some shady haunt,

[12] Among Arabian sands:

[13] No sweeter voice was ever heard

[14] In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

[15] Breaking the silence of the seas

[16] Among the farthest Hebrides.

As he expresses in the second stanza, lines 13 and 14 specifically, he has never heard a voice as enchanting as hers. The comparisons he makes to her voice is of a high regard seeing as nightingale’s are known for their impressively loud, beautiful voices carry through the air, her voice surpasses all of that. It is a moment he relishes and does his best to put into words of the appreciation he feels that he is the one who gets to hear her song.

[25] Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang

[26] As if her song could have no ending;

[27] I saw her singing at her work,

[28] And o'er the sickle bending;--

[29] I listened, motionless and still;

[30] And, as I mounted up the hill,

[31] The music in my heart I bore,

[32] Long after it was heard no more.

The last stanza, to me, stood out the most from the rest of the poem. Whatever the young woman is singing it’s poetry to Wordsworth and those emotions transfers into his inner being. She immersed herself in nature, not necessarily becoming one with nature, but without the distractions of every day life in the city it seems she felt at peace to sing within the safe haven of that field. It was fortunate for Wordsworth to come across her path and to remain where he was just to listen to what this human being articulated in his favorite kind of setting. The ending of the poem is what strikes me the most as he writes the loveliest two lines that express his gratitude to her song as best he could. Lines 31 and 32 say that the song she chanted will be carried in his heart, even when he can’t physically hear her voice anymore.

Wordsworth deeply desired for people to feel the same calm he did when he was in nature. The fact that he found another breathing soul giving a piece of themselves while in nature is something he had to document and share with others. With “the Solitary Reaper” he did just that. With words that placed you in that mentality immediately one can feel that peaceful moment after reading the last stanza of this poem.

To view the whole poem itself with notes, visit:
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2370.html by Ian Lancashire of the English Department at the University of Toronto