The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
Directions: Highlight any unfamiliar words or phrases and write definitions in the middle column.
Highlight in GREEN any words that rhyme.
1 Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
5 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
10 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,
15 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,
20 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?
25 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;
30 And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
Definitions:
Text Dependent Questions:
1. What is the poem about?
2. Read Stanza 1, What is the tone of the stanza?
(Hint: Tone – authors/speaker’s attitude towards the subject.)
3. What is the mood in stanza 1?
4. Read Stanza 3, Why does the speaker feel frustrated about the song? (Hint: Ambiguous)
5. Read lines 17-24, What is the speaker’s perspective?
6. How does the tone change throughout the poem?