The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 26, 2014   The Solitary Reaper   William Wordsworth

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?     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 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.            The poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “The Solitary Reaper” was written in 1805 and published in 1807 in Wordsworth’s collection Poems, in Two Volumes.   William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England on April 7, 1770. His most famous work, The Prelude (1850), is considered to be one of the most important achievements of English Romanticism. Poetry by William Wordsworth   The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth (Wordsworth Editions, 1994) "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon Byron "Curse of the Cat Woman" by Edward Field Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038