The Solitary Reaper

The Romantics in general—and Wordsworth in particular—were known for their celebration of rural lifestyles and natural beauty, their major works regularly preferring the countryside over more urban settings. “The Solitary Reaper” typifies this proclivity, the speaker caught up in momentary imaginative transport upon encountering a country maiden singing. For the speaker, the maiden’s song isn’t just charming—it is actually rather sublime; it is so powerful that the speaker is in awe of it and temporarily loses himself. To praise the maiden’s singing, the speaker resorts to elaborate comparisons, claiming that the maiden’s singing is superior to that of a “Nightingale” (Line 9) singing “Among Arabian sands” (Line 12), or that of a “Cuckoo bird” (Line 14) heard “Among the farthest Hebrides” (Line 16). Such claims elevate the maiden beyond the wonders of Nature herself. The reference to the “Arabian sands” (Line 12) of the “Nightingale” (Line 9) creates a contrast: The beauty supposedly found in exotic locales juxtaposes with the beauty here in the Scottish Highlands. This contrast rejects the idea that what is exotic or fancy is automatically superior to what is traditional, simple, and rural.

Furthermore, the speaker depicts the maiden’s ordinary rural labor as something effortlessly elegant: not as backbreaking toil but as something the maiden performs singlehandedly (“single in the field” [Line 1]) and while singing gracefully. She is “reaping and singing by herself” (Line 3) without seeming overworked or resentful of her menial labor, and she “cuts and binds the grain” (Line 5) as she continues her song. Such elevated, idealized depictions of rural labor suggest that even “common” people and things can be worthy of poetry, as Wordsworth and his fellow Romantics always believed.