"Solitary Reaper" by William Wordswort
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.
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 to-day?
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.
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 to-day?
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.
First reactions
I was actually quite drawn to this poem. The image of the lone farmer girl singing to herself in a way the poet can not understand strikes me as being something almost spiritual, but I can imagine that it's a scene that could have actually happened, rather than relying on metaphors or exceptional situations. That the meaning is unclear to the listener is superseded by the feelings it creates in us. This follows after "Ode on a Grecian Urn," where visible aesthetics and silence are played up, while here it is the invisible and heard that are the main focus.
Paraphrase
See the girl alone in the field, that Highland girl over there. Cutting and singing to herself; you either stop to listen or gently pass. She cuts and ties together the grain alone while singing her sad song. Listen! The valley is filled with the sounds of her song. No nightengale has ever sung any song more welcome to tired travellers in suspicious stops in the Arabian deserts. No cuckoo-bird has ever sung something more thrilling to break the silence across the seas to the Hebride islands. Will no one tell me what she is saying? Perhaps she's singing about old sorrows and battles, or maybe she's singing about more mundane things that she's experienced once and may experience again. Whatever it means, the girl sings as if the song doesn't have an ending. I saw her singing as she worked, swinging her sickle, and listened. I could still hear her song as I moved on, even though she was no longer singing.
Paraphrase
See the girl alone in the field, that Highland girl over there. Cutting and singing to herself; you either stop to listen or gently pass. She cuts and ties together the grain alone while singing her sad song. Listen! The valley is filled with the sounds of her song. No nightengale has ever sung any song more welcome to tired travellers in suspicious stops in the Arabian deserts. No cuckoo-bird has ever sung something more thrilling to break the silence across the seas to the Hebride islands. Will no one tell me what she is saying? Perhaps she's singing about old sorrows and battles, or maybe she's singing about more mundane things that she's experienced once and may experience again. Whatever it means, the girl sings as if the song doesn't have an ending. I saw her singing as she worked, swinging her sickle, and listened. I could still hear her song as I moved on, even though she was no longer singing.
SWIFTT
SW – Wordswort uses various words that connect the girl with nature, calling her a nightengale and a cuckoo-bird and saying her sound is filling the valley. He emphasizes her work as a farmer, someone who tends to nature for a bountiful harvest. Wordswort also uses distinctly Scottish words, such as "lass" and "vale."
I – The images of this poem are varied, the main one being the farmer girl working on the harvest, but secondary images are of the valley and the Scottish Highlands in which she is singing, the Arabian deserts referenced to with the nightengale, and the Scottish islands of Hebrides. Wordswort connects the song to various settings in nature.
F – One use of figurative language that stuck out to me was the mention of the nightengale. Wordswort uses it literally to refer to a bar singer in some spot in the Arabian deserts, but also to the bird itself. That her song reaches across the valley is also a spot of hyperbole, but emphasizes the effect of the song on the poet.
T – The best way the tone of the poem could be described is to call it "awe." Wordswort mentions that he can do nothing but listen to her song, and the comparisons he makes to the two birds emphasizes the feelings it creates in him, as if it were a force of nature itself.
T –The theme of the poem is twofold. The first is the powerful effect a chance meeting can have on a person, here a song to a listener, and the power of feeling over perhaps more formal understanding. The second is the connection people have with nature, which is emphasized in the work the girl does as well as the various settings the poet imagines.
Conclusions
The nature angle is especially strong on a second reading, and to me that emphasizes the spiritual aspect I read from the first time around. However, the connection with others on a more emotional level, rather than just through a formal understanding by language, strikes especially well in this poem. It doesn't supersede formal understanding, as the poet is still interested in the theme of the poem, but complements it—even without understanding, however, the effect remains powerful.
