"The Solitary Reaper" is a lyric by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and one of his best-known works. The poem was inspired by his and his sister Dorothy's stay at the village of Strathyre in the parish of Balquhidder in Scotland in September 1803."The Solitary Reaper" is one of Wordsworth's most famous post-Lyrical Ballads lyrics. The words of the reaper's song are incomprehensible to the speaker, so his attention is free to focus on the tone, expressive beauty and the blissful mood it creates in him. The poem functions to "praise the beauty of music and its fluid expressive beauty", the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" that Wordsworth identified at the heart of poetry. The poet orders or requests his listeners to behold a young maiden reaping and singing to herself. The poet says that anyone passing by should either stop or gently pass as not to disturb her. There is a controversy however over the importance of the reaper along with Nature.
“Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain
That has been, and may be again.”
The Solitary Reaper.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.”
The Solitary Reaper.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
The Solitary Reaper, st. 4.
Memorials of a Tour in Scotland (1803)
