The Solitary Reaper - William Wordsworth 

Introduction: 
It was composed in November 1805 and was published in 1807. It is a lyric of rare beauty. It
recreates the song of a Highland lass -- a girl belonging to the mountainous region of Scotland. The
theme of the poem, “The Solitary Reaper”, reveals a high quality of poetic imagination. The poet
sees a Highland girl reaping and singing all alone in the field. Her song is a melancholy song. The
girl is singing in the local dialect which the poet does not understand. Wordsworth makes guesses
about its theme, but the meaning of the song is not important. The music is extraordinarily sweet.
The poet is so impressed by her music that it has become a part of permanent source of joy. 

“The music in my heart I bore,

 Long after it was heard no more.”

Development of Thought:
The poem is about the song that the poet imagines. He had heard a solitary Highland lass sing. She
overflows the vale with her music -- a melancholy strain that she sings while cutting and binding
the grain. The last stanza contains the poet's response to the song. The important fact about the
music he had heard is that it has so involved his imagination that he thought it eternal. It so
entranced him that he finds it still echoing in his imagination as he goes on his way. 

Melancholy Atmosphere and Romantic Imagery: 

The poem is remarkable for its melancholy atmosphere and its romantic images. 

“Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.”

The Romantics showed a great deal of interest in ‘the far away’ and ‘the long ago’. This is evident
in “The Solitary Reaper”. Wordsworth is, on the whole, more prone to make poetic subject-matter
out of ordinary everyday Human Experience. Though he presents such matters in a way that
causes them to become uncommon or romantic. 

Stanza Form:
Wordsworth uses a stanza of eight lines divided into a quatrain and two octosyllabic couplets. The
fourth line of each stanza is a trimeter -- a line of three feet. The stanzaic form of the poem is an
elaboration of the ballad stanza. 

Mystery:
We know nothing at all about the Reaper’s real feelings as she sings, just as we do not know what
are the words of the song she sings. The only know that her song is melancholic. 

As a Poet of Nature 
The reaper is nearly merged with Nature. At the end of the poem, we remember a person who is
not only very close to Nature, but also a person possessing the dignity of human uniqueness rising
above her surroundings. 
Music 
The poem is very musical. The stanza form employed elaborates on the ballad stanza, but has a
magnificent sweep of rhythm and a strong lyrical feeling. 

Feeling of Universality 
We have the feeling of universality after reading this poem. The feeling is not just a personal one.
The girl is expressing a sense of melancholy and sorrows, and Wordsworth’s use of parallels of
time and space serves powerfully to universalize this sense. The Nightingale is presented as a bird
of extreme North, and the Cuckoo, a bird of South. Arabia stands for the East, and Hebrides stand
for the West. 

Simplicity 
“The Solitary Reaper” shows what poetry Wordsworth could write on a simple thing and in a
simple language. Nature was a source of double joy to him --- the joy of hearing and seeing and the
joy of remembering. The Solitary Reaper’s voice becomes almost a part of nature. It becomes one
with the scenery and atmosphere of the valley. 

Conclusion
The poem is one of the best examples of the new romantic poetry introduced by Wordsworth and
Coleridge.