Subject: English Class: 2nd Year Name: _______________

Unit Three (poem): The Solitary Reaper

Glossary
behold ___________________ melancholy _______________ solitary ______________
bore _____________________ motionless ________________ sorrow _______________
chaunt __________________ mount ____________________ strain ________________
far-off ___________________ overflow __________________ thrilling ______________
haunt ___________________ plaintive __________________ vale __________________
humble _________________ profound _________________ weary ________________
lass _____________________ reaper ____________________ welcome _____________
maiden __________________ shady ____________________ yon __________________

Important MCQS from the Unit

1. “The Solitary Reaper” is a poem written by William Wordsworth.
2. William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 and died on April 23, 1850.
3. He was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, located in the Lake District of England.
4. He was best known for his “Lyrical Ballads” and “The Prelude”.
5. “The Prelude” is a Romantic Epic poem.
6. “Lyrical Ballads” was published in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
7. Wordsworth became the poet laureate in 1843, upon the insistence of the Prime
Minister Robert Peel.
8. Wordsworth compares the song of the solitary reaper with that of the Nightingale
and the Cuckoo-bird.

Paraphrasing
Stanza 1 (lines 1-8):

Stop your journey for a while and observe that beautiful Highland girl. She is all by
herself, cutting and binding crops in a field. While she is in the field working alone,
she starts singing a sad song at the top of her voice. Her melancholic voice soon
pervades throughout the plains, breaking the silence, and could be heard from miles
afar. You are required to either remain silent while listening to her song, or walk away
in silence.

Stanza 2 (lines 9-16):

The sweet song sung by the country girl is matchless and incomparable. From the
sandy plains of Arabia to the lush islands of Hebrides, from the sweet chants of
nightingales to the melodious chirps of a Cuckoo birds, nothing surpasses the solitary
reaper’s song in terms of profoundness, sweetness and melody. Her voice has a note
of thrill and touch of melancholy.

Stanza 3 (lines 17-24):

Is somebody here who might tell me more about the song of the solitary reaper? The
song being incomprehensible to me, I reckon it is about some sad event that came to
pass in the bygone days. I still wonder if it relates to a deadly war fought long ago, or
some familiar run-of-the-mill event of the present time. A final guess would be: It is an
elegy about the cycle of death—a “natural sorrow, loss, or pain”— that is probably
without an end.

Stanza 4 (lines 25-32):

The theme of the maiden’s song was unknown to me yet I was able to infer that the
song was a universal one without any ending or cessation. I still remember seeing her
bending over the sickle and singing at her work. Both the tone and her voice were so
mesmerizing that I stood there spellbound, listening to her song. Such had been its
effect on my soul that I could still hear her singing, as I was climbing up a hill later
on. Its memory endured and lasted forever deep in my heart.

Explanation of the lines

Reference to the Context (for all lines):

These lines appear in William Wordsworth’s masterpiece lyrical poem “The Solitary
Reaper,” which is structured into four stanzas, each consisting of eight lines and a
rhyme scheme (ABABCCDD). The scene of the poem is set in a faraway field, which is
a typical feature of Romantic poetry. As he is passing through a seemingly deserted
field, the speaker of the poem encounters a solitary country girl who is busy
harvesting and singing by herself. He stops for a moment to rejoice at her sad yet
melodious voice and continues on. Now the experience has ended, but the memory of
that solitary girl and her long-heard voice keeps coming back into the speaker’s
conscious mind, making him feel nostalgic.

Explanation of the lines (1-8):

In these lines of the poem, the speaker invites us to pause for a while and observe a
country girl who is working in a nearby field. She is harvesting and garnering the
bales of crop, all by herself. As she is alone, she starts singing in order to cope with
her loneliness. The speaker describes her song as melancholic and depressing. But
her voice is melodious—spreading to every nook and cranny of the valley—and can be
heard from afar. The speaker demands that we either leave quietly or stand calmly,
steadily, and silently; otherwise, we might interrupt her singing. Attention, he
maintains, is mandatory for full appreciation of her enchanting divine melody.

Explanation of the lines (9-16):

In these lines of the poem, the speaker discusses two contrasting auditory images and
compares them each with the image of the solitary reaper. In doing so, he professes
the greatness and profoundness of the latter. First of all, he takes the image of a
nightingale singing to a group of exhausted men, who are sitting under the shadow of
some tree in the desert of Arabia. Then, he reverses the situation in the second image,
in which a cuckoo bird is chirping in the season of spring on the remotest island of
Hebrides. In conclusion, the speaker asserts that these songs heard in two dissimilar
environments of the world are doubtlessly uplifting but not as divine and symphonic
as the song sung by the beautiful solitary reaper.

Explanation of the lines (17-24):

In these lines, the speaker speculates about the language, nature, and possible theme
of the song sung by the solitary reaper. He makes various guesses based on the
plaintive tone of the song. Having never heard the song before, he puts forward
various rhetorical questions, which shows his unwavering curiosity and unyielding
spirit of enquiry. His first guess is that the song may be sung in remembrance of some
disastrous battle fought long ago. Then he backtracks, asking whether it is about a
recent battle, for the death toll is far greater now than ever.

Lastly, he guesses that the song could be about “natural sorrow, loss, or pain," which
means it is a mourning song or elegy sung over the death of someone of acquaintance.
Relating the song to death seems pertinent because it is something common to
everyone without exception. This makes the song a universal elegy written on the
theme of the cycle of life and death. As the speaker wonders, “That has been, and may
be again?”

Explanation of the lines (25-32):

In these lines of the poem, the speaker decides that contemplating the subject and the
origin of the song is of no avail to him. Instead, he wants to shift his focus to the song
itself, sung by the maiden in the field. He is so enthralled by the beauty and the
rhythm of the song that he wishes it to run on endlessly. He stands frozen and
mesmerized, near the field where the beautiful girl is singing. Though disinclined and
unwilling, eventually the speaker departs from the place and continues his journey.
The music soon fades away and gives way to complete silence. However, the speaker
can recall the tune and the music of the song still playing on in his memory, and
filling his heart with immense happiness and great joy.

Reading Comprehension (pg. 28)

Q1. What is the theme of the poem “The Solitary Reaper”?

Ans. The major theme of the poem “The Solitary Reaper” is about the praise of the
beauty of nature. When life is spent in company of nature, even simple situations and
ordinary things can become the source of everlasting beauty and immense joy. The
speaker in the poem unexpectedly comes across events and objects which are of trivial
importance and then moves on, but their imperishable imprint is left unchanged in
his memory and continues to be the source of ultimate joy.

Another theme is that of comparison between art and its artist. It is said that art
outlives the artist. Like many other poems by Wordsworth, this one also explores that
art is perennial, transcending the spatiotemporal boundaries, though the artist who
created it may perish. In the poem, though the solitary reaper’s voice ceases to exist
as the speaker leaves the field, however, the memory of her song as a form of art
remains alive in his mind as late as he “mounts up the hill”—meaning he is alive.

Q2. How does Wordsworth describe the song of “The Solitary Reaper”?

Ans. Wordsworth describes the song of the solitary reaper as essentially melancholic
yet soothing. On the onset, the speaker comes to comprehend that the tone of the
song is plaintive and sad owing to some unknown reason. Nevertheless, he cannot
help but enjoy and praise the song for its lyrical beauty and rhythmical creativity.
Though sad, the young maiden’s song is more enchanting and mesmerizing to him
than the sweet singing of an Arabian nightingale as well as the felicitous chirping of a
Cuckoo bird.

Q3. What are the poet’s feelings about the song as expressed in the second
stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper”?

Ans. The poet feels elevated and euphoric when he gets the chance to listen to the
elegant song of the young maiden. The melodious voice of the maiden transports him
into a state of rapture and trance, where he enjoys the rhythmical beauty of the song.
He describes the melody as unsurpassable in terms of its lyrical quality. It has far
more depth and profoundness than the “welcome notes” of an Arabian nightingale and
the sweet chirps of a Cuckoo bird heard in the remote islands of Hebrides.

Q4. Describe in your own words the visual images depicted in the first
stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper”.

Ans. An image is a mental sketch of some situation or event made with the aid of vivid
words. As regards the first stanza of “The Solitary Reaper”, there is an organic
combination of visual and auditory images. It is rife with the images of a maiden who
is harvesting crops and singing. The following lines from the stanza are instances of
visual images.

1. “Single in the field”.

2. “Reaping and singing by herself”.
3. “Alone she cuts and binds the grain”.

Q5. Give the examples of Alliteration from “The Solitary Reaper”.

Ans. The repetition of the ‘n’ sound in “No Nightingale”, the initial ‘s’ sound in “silence
of the seas”, and the ‘p’ sound in “perhaps the plaintive numbers flow”, are the
instances of alliteration from the poem “The Solitary Reaper” for the reason that they
are the initial, repetitive, consonant sounds in the words in succession which creates
a melodious effect.

Q6. As you read the third stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper” what
pictures of the situation do you make in your mind?

Ans. Two parts of the third stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper” create two
opposite pictures in my mind. When I read the first half of the stanza, the picture that
my mind makes is that of a bloody battlefield where two armies are locked in a deadly
war. Contrary to this, while reading the second half of the stanza, my mind
conceptualizes the image of a familiar, peaceful, run-of-the-mill event related to
everyday life.

Q7. Explain the last stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper” in your own
words.

Ans. The last stanza of the poem “The Solitary Reaper” can be divided into two halves.
The first half describes the theme of timelessness of art. Art can transcend the
boundaries of space ad time, and become eternal. The speaker in the poem says that
the song sung by the maiden has the capacity to continue endlessly. The second half
has two themes. Firstly, it is about the concept that “art outlives the artist”. It exists
beyond the artist who created it in the first place. In the poem, the speaker departs
 from the scene but still relates to the song, though he does not think about the
solitary reaper. Secondly, the last lines of the stanza describe Wordsworth’s dearest
theme: the theme of memory and nostalgia. The speaker of the poem can no longer
hear the song sung by the maiden, but its memory is still present in his mind and
makes him nostalgic. He is able to enjoy the song “long after it is heard no more”.

Vocabulary and Grammar (pg. 31)

B. Use the correct form of the verbs given in brackets.
1. (a)Your friends waited for you for over an hour. (Past Indefinite)
(b)Your friends have been waiting for you for over an hour. (Present Perf. Cont.)
2. It is not worth paying so much money for this concert. (Gerund after Preposition)
3. When I reached the station, the train had left. (Past Perfect)
4. I visited the Badshahi Mosque last month. (Past Indefinite)
5. The criminal attacked the victim with a blunt object. (Past Indefinite)
6. His company is greatly sought after. (Main Verb in the Passive Voice)
7. His courage forsook him. (Past Indefinite)
8. The terrified people fled to the mountains. (Past Indefinite)
9. The police left no stone unturned to trace the culprits. (Past Indefinite)
10. The robber struck him a blow on the head. (Past Indefinite)