William words worth is a poet of both nature and man. In the
solitary reaper he describes the song of a lonely highland girl.
The poet is impressed by the reaper’s song. The girl is
single in the field she reaps and sings by herself. The poet asks either to
stop or gently pass she cuts and binds the grain alone. She sings a sad song.
The whole valley is filled with the sound.
The poet compares her song to that of a nightingale and a
cuckoo-bird. The nightingale sings welcome songs to tired travelers in the
Arabian sands. But the reaper’s song is more welcome than the song of the
nightingale. In spring time, the cuckoo-bird sings thrillingly breaking the
silence of the seas in the faraway Hebrides. The reaper’s voice is more
thrilling than the song of the cuckoo-bird.
The girl sings in a Scottish language. The poet does not know
that language. So he, wonders about the theme of her song. He guesses that it
may be some old , unhappy , far-off things and battles. Or it may be a simple
song on a familiar mother of today. Or it may be some natural sorrow, loss or
pain of past or future.
Whatever the theme may be , the reaper sang as if her song
has no ending.
The poet listened motionless and still as he climbed up the
hit, he bore the reaper’s song in his heart though it was not heard, it is in
his memory.
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