The Solitary Reaper

1887 Words4 Pages

William Wordsworth’s poem “The Solitary Reaper” has a symbolic recollection of seeing a woman reaping and singing in the Scotland Highlands. He uses four stanzas of eight lines and innate rhyme scheme to perceive the speakers experience. The orator utilizes sophisticated allusions to personify the aftermath of the Highland lass on his lonely heart. In addition, he dictates his reminiscence through the application of multiple detailed literary techniques. Through his experience or inexperience of the situation he uses nature to symbolize the deeper meaning of the poem. Finally through his eyes Wordsworth might have been suggesting the stanzas be compared to life and the mysteries in the human condition. Multiple interpretations have been made based on who the audience believes the speaker to be. Based on the background of what was going on in Scotland we can go either way with the argument.

William was a kin to Dorothy Wordsworth and four other siblings yet he and Dorothy were the closest. Dorothy was a poet and diarist, she was known for starting a poetry tour in Scotland the year of 1803 (“Harold”). William was said to be on the tour with his sister and their good friend Samuel Coleridge ("Recollections”). Most of the places they had gone to on their carriage ride were not accessible therefore, they had to walk. The Scottish expedition that they went on was also known as the romantic Counterpart ("Recollections”). Dorothy was one of the main writers of the romantic expedition along with Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. Yet, you can argue that William wrote this from his perspective and not from the writings of another.

Multiple different interpretations exist of the poem about who is the keynote of the poem. Some say Wordswo...

... middle of paper ...

...onder what is the content of life?

Works Cited

Ashraf005, . "The Solitary Reaper." shvoong. shvoong, 11 29 2008 . Web. 23 Feb 2012.

"Cukoo, Nightingale, Lark, Woodpecer and other musical birds in Folklore." socyberty. socyberty, 2012. Web. 27 Feb 2012.

“Explanation of: ‘The Solitary Reaper’ by William Wordsworth.”LitFinder Contemporary Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2000. LitFinder. Web. 22. 22Feb2012.

Harold , Bloom. "William Wordsworth ." Trans. Harold Bloom The scene of Instruction "Tintern Abbey". . updated. New York: Chelsea House publishers, 2007. 42-44. Print.

"Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland 1803." undiscoveredscotland. Undiscovered Scotland, 2000. Web. 23 Feb 2012.

""The Solitary Reaper" ." enotes. enotes, 2012. Web. 24 Feb 2012.

“William Wordsworth.” LitFinder Conteporary Collection. Detroit: Gale,2007. LitFinder. Web. 22Feb. 2012.

Show More
Related

  • Nancy Cato's Poem 'The Dead Swagman'

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.

    Read More

  • Wordsworth's Emotions In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

    497 Words  | 1 Pages

    Furthermore, Wordsworth’s assertion of feelings as the effects of an action or a situation, which means that actions should influence the emotions of the character and not the other way around, is dissimilar to The Raven’s character’s feeling of desperation in which he succumbed to his distress. However, the lesson derived from the bizarre workings of the human mind in preferring more devotion to the pain for the sake of “preserving the memory,” as “The Raven” illustrates, exposes to us how a particular person behaves towards grief. The statement thus proves in relation to Coleridge’s statement of the readers’ elicitation of the poem is more significant than the poem itself (in reference to his emphasis on the importance of the “Return”). Another variation between Wordsworth and Coleridge is that the former claims that the writer must bring the language near to the language of men, whilst the latter believes that the language of poetry should beautiful and elevated. “The Raven” in this case

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Backyard Blues By Natasha Trethewey

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Part I is particularly anecdotal, with many of the poems relating to the death of Trethewey’s mother. The first part begins with an epitaph from the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, which introduces the movement of the soul after death, and the journey towards the ‘home’ beyond. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance of the soul’s movement after death. The ‘home’ described in the epitaph is a place of comfort and familiarity, where the speaker returns to their mother. In contrast, Trethewey describes the ‘home’ she returns to after her mother’s death as a hollow place, the journey back to which is incredibly

    Read More

  • Friendship in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Written on the banks of the Lye, this beautiful lyric has been said by critic Robert Chinchilla to “pose the question of friendship in a way more central, more profound, than any other poem of Wordsworth’s since ‘The Aeolian Harp’ of 1799” (245). Wordsworth is writing the poem to his sister Rebecca as a way of healing their former estrangement.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

    1993 Words  | 4 Pages

    her message to the reader. The poem is written in five quatrains. The way in

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Mary Oliver's 'When Death Comes'

    1381 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker

    Read More

  • Kenneth Fearing’s Dirge

    1633 Words  | 4 Pages

    ..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.

    Read More

  • Discuss the different relationships between man and nature in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and in a selection on poems by William Wor...

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    In ‘All the Pretty Horses’ Luis states ‘among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion’, by this he means the relationship man has with nature is totally unique, it is sacred; the relationship between men is a misapprehension. In some respects the reader may agree with the statement because it is true, man’s relationship with animals and nature is fairly simple compared to man’s relationship amongst each other which is far more complex due to conflict of opinion and other complications. John Grady Cole’s relationship with Alejandra faced much turmoil and complication, one of the biggest issues they faced was the fact Alejandra’s family condemned their relationship and forbid her to be with him. To a certain extent John’s romance with Alejandra mirrors Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in respects to their forbidden love, however their story does not end in tragedy. Wordsworth shows nature to be more of a companion for man in ‘The Solitary Reaper’. The woman reaps the crops alone in the field singing with a voice so ‘thrilling’ it resonates ‘Long after it was heard no more’. Although she is lonely, she is wholly reliant upon the sustenance she receives and the relationship she has with nature. The poet proceeds to compare her to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale stating ‘No Nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome notes to weary bands’ being compared to birds with such beautiful song surely displays her oneness with nature. Unlike the ‘maiden’ Victor tries to control and dominate nature, this resentment could stem from the fact his mother died of the fever, making him go to extreme lengths in constructing this figure from different body parts to create a cre...

    Read More

  • Philosophy of Death According to Marcus Aurelius

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most people view death as an evil force set out against all of humanity. In fact, in our present culture, the personification of death, the grim reaper, is one ...

    Read More

  • Dorothy & William Wordsworth Analysis

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    ‘It is often suggested that the source for many of William Wordsworth’s poems lies in the pages of Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal. Quite frequently, Dorothy describes an incident in her journal, and William writes a poem about the same incident, often around two years later.’ It is a common observation that whilst Dorothy is a recorder – ‘her face was excessively brown’ – William is a transformer – ‘Her skin was of Egyptian brown’ . The intertextuality between The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals and ‘I wandered lonely as a Cloud’ allows both Dorothy and William to write about the same event, being equally as descriptive, but in very differing ways. Dorothy writes in a realist ‘log-book’ like style, whereas William writes in a romantic ballad style. This can be very misleading, as it gives William’s work more emotional attachment even though his work is drawn upon Dorothy’s diary, which in its turn is very detached, including little personal revelation. When read in conjunction with William’s poetry, Dorothy’s journal seems to be a set of notes written especially for him by her. In fact, from the very beginning of the journals Dorothy has made it quite clear that she was writing them for William’s ‘pleasure’ . This ties in with many of the diary entries in which she has described taking care of William in a physical sense. In a way this depicts the manner in which William uses his sister’s journal to acquire the subject of his poetry, which makes it seem as though Dorothy is his inspiration.

    Read More

  • Disabled Wilfred Owen Essay

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Owen begins the poem with a depressing description of a man in a wheeled chair “waiting for dark”. The use of the word ‘dark’ gives connotations of death, implying that he’s waiting for his death to come. It also conveys a sense of isolation and sadness as the soldier no longer has a family. The mention of ‘sleep’ in the last line of the stanza can be an indication that death is near, since death is sometimes described as eternal sleep. Personification is used a...

    Read More

  • The Fear of Mortality (A response to Wordsworth’s poetry themes)

    686 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Wordsworth rejected all the traditional assumptions about the proper style, words, and subject matter for a poem during the Romanics period. When explaining his writing Wordsworth said, “There will be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetry diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it.” (Marshall) Because he took such a different approach to his writing, many people criticized his poems. Literary critic Harold Bloom said, “The fear of mortality haunts much of Wordsworth’s best poetry, especially in regard to the premature mortality of the Imagination and the loss of its creative joy.” Wordsworth does in fact express fear of mortality in the poems The World is too much with us, London, 1802, The Prelude, and Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

    Read More

  • William Wordsworth and the Mortality of the Imagination

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Peters, John G. “Wordsworth’s TINTERN ABBEY” The Explicator(Washington) , Winter 2003, Vol. 61, Iss. 2, pg. 77 : eLibrary. Web 05 Mar 2002

    Read More

  • Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

    2194 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.

    Read More

  • Nature in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the poet’s mental journey in nature where he remembers the daffodils that give him joy when he is lonely and bored. The poet is overwhelmed by nature’s beauty where he thought of it while lying alone on his couch. The poem shows the relationship between nature and the poet, and how nature’s motion and beauty influences the poet’s feelings and behaviors for the good. Moreover, the process that the speaker goes through is recollected that shows that he isolated from society, and is mentally in nature while he is physically lying on his couch. Therefore, William Wordsworth uses figurative language and syntax and form throughout the poem to express to the readers the peace and beauty of nature, and to symbolize the adventures that occurred in his mental journey.

    Read More

More about The Solitary Reaper

Open Document