Poet’s Corner: Wordsworth–Solitary Reaper

17 February 2026

(6 June 2014) Tofay we turn to one of the most influential poets, on my poetry, at least, Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In his ‘manifesto’ on poetry, the “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” he stated that it was his purpose to write about the everyday using ordinary language; an example of this is “The Solitary Reaper”:

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 listened, 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 poet, walking down a country lane, notices a young woman cutting grain in a nearby field, and while she cuts and bundles the sheaves of grain, she sings in a language the poet does not comprehend, but the feeling of her song is conveyed through the music that the poet carries with him. The scene is an ordinary scene–something we could see walking in a similar time and place; the language, compared to previous poets–like Dryden or Pope–is everyday language. In this poem Wordsworth manages both of his poetic tasks, recording for all time this moment, conveying the emotion felt in that moment. Come back Thursday for another edition of the Poet’s Corner! For those interested, find my poetry here.