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The Solitary Reaper

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The Solitary Reaper – William Wordsworth

“The Solitary Reaper” is a poem written by a well-known English poet, and a founder of the romantic movement of English literature, William Wordsworth. The poem is from 1807, the romanticism period. The poem is composed of four stanzas, with eight lines. The first and fourth stanzas have a rhyme scheme of ABABCCDD, while the second stanza have a rhyme scheme of ABAB, and the third one have a rhyme scheme of AABB.
The poem has a simple structure. The first stanza describes the scene where the young girl is standing alone in a field, singing while she is reaping, and cutting grain. In the two next stanzas the speaker compares the girl’s beautiful sound with the cries of the nightingale and Cuckoo-bird. His comparison can be interpreted in two ways. The first interpretation is that the girl’s sound is so beautiful that nothing can equal its beauty and sweetness. The song the girl is singing is so sad and touching that anyone who passes by should either stop and listen, or pass gently by without disturbing her,
Stop here, or gently pass!, (p.93 l.19). The second way is that the words the girl is singing is in a language unknown to the speaker, and he cannot understand what the girl is singing about, he just assumes what she might be singing about,
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, (p.93.ll.36-42) But even though he does not understand the words he remains transfixed by the melody,
The music in my heart I bore / Long after it was heard no more, (p.94 ll.8-9).
These two lines also describe the effect the memories can have on the human thoughts and feelings. Even though he walked away from the field and the song faded from his

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