Poem: The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April, 1770. He was one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in English literature. “The Solitary Reaper” is one of Wordsworth’s most famous post-Lyrical Ballads lyrics. The poem was inspired by his and his sister Dorothy‘s stay at the village of Strathyre in the parish of Balquhidder in Scotland.
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.
Also Read: Poem: It Was an April Morning: Fresh and Clear
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.
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William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) is one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in English poetry.
