The Solitary Reaper

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!

What’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 listen’d motionless and still;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore

Long after it was heard no more.

     – William Wordsworth

Alliteration:

And sings a melancholy strain – s

No   nightingale did ever chaunt – n

More welcome notes to weary  bands – v

Among   Arabian sands – a

Breaking the silence of   the seas – s

Will  no one tell me what she sings – v

Perhaps  the plaintive numbers flow – p

For  old, unhappy, far-off things – f

Some  natural sorrow, loss, or pain – s

I saw her singing  at her work – s

The music in my  heart I bore – m

Allusion:

Yon solitary Highland  Lass

Fields of scotland

Among Arabian sands

The reference is to the Arabian   desert, where the nightingale sings.

Metaphor

Is overflowing with the   sound

No nightingale did ever   chaunt

In spring-time from the cuckoo–bird,

Perhaps the plaintive numbers   flow

Rhyme Scheme

abcb – lass, pass; ending, bending;

aabb – Grain, strain; profound, sound;   heard, bird; seas, herbides; lay, day; pain, again;

abab – Chaunt, haunt; bands, sands;   sings, things; flow, ago; still, hill; bore, more