Every time we read poetry, the only thing that gushes through our thoughts is a brawny urgency to decipher the meaning behind those few lines. I am no exception to that and I also make several attempts to delve deep into the thoughts and a series of conjectures just starts beaming into my mind.
In a state of utter desire to have my own thoughts recollected and assembled, I have made here an attempt to bring to you a critical review of one the most famous lyrical ballads of English literature – The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.“ 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 travelers 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 listen’d, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more. ”
- William Wordsworth (1805 A.D)
A poet always gives birth to poetry when he has thoughts in his mind. This birth of poetry is no where comparable to a prose because of its sheer ingenuity to express the most in the least of expressions. This is captured by the most skillful of their times, in language, as simple as it could be, with the message in the most artistic flavor. The common man takes it into his understanding with the flow of the lines and brings out an explanation, in utter desire of expression, which reveals what the poet carried in his mind and heart through those few lines.
If we take Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper” into consideration, a similar feeling comes to our mind w.r.t those few lines. The story of a Highland girl who sings in Gaelic, a Celtic language still spoken in the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides- She is being lonely, with voice incomparable to that of a cuckoo or a nightingale, perhaps reflecting either sorrow or loss in the family. The poet, unknown to what she sings, still reminiscences her song in his memory until the future.
Let us now take a deep dive into this poetry, or let say, scrutinize each and every line of it to understand what might have led Wordsworth to depict such a feeling.
The first four lines depict a feminine character and by this we can compare the most epitomes of all feminine characters, The Mother Earth. The next four lines throw light upon her activity which, more or less, is natural and mundane. But we get a feeling of unhappiness, sorrow in these lines which really brings to our mind the sorrow and pain of our Mother Earth. And this particular pain is tumultuous to have been overflowing like the sound of agony.
At this stage of description, let me remind you that William Wordsworth belongs to that period of English literature when the Industrial Revolution of England had just begun and it was during the first phase of it when this particular poem was composed. In addition to it is also hinted that the idea of a new social order based on major industrial revolution was implicit through Wordsworth at the turn of the century.
Now, coming back on to the poem, we see that the second stanza describe an unassuming songbird singing to wearied travelers. This has got a natural imagery of people who earlier used to retire back home in the evening from their fields. Industrialization has taken its toll and even the birds wish to fulfill their singing, even amidst a desert looking city with dust and sand, with the best of their tunes. The thrilling voice of cuckoo, which is incomparable to that sung in spring also relates to a hidden negative aspect of a groaning pain for a future calamity that might overturn the Mother Earth across the seas and faraway places. The macabre of futility (a negative aspect for Industrial Revolution) is being depicted here with the best of words and simple expression of a natural phenomena going beyond its original quality to express a pain or a melancholy feeling.
The third stanza of this particular poem is one of the most beautiful depictions of a simple question of shaping the future from a dark and morose past. The query for the song (sung in a language unknown to the author) is a direct question to the sustainability of Industrial development for the future (unknown to the author) and how it can never be done away without raging a war, losing many lives, natural deaths (pollution perhaps!) , all of which might just bundle up. This stanza brings out the most crucial doubt of Wordsworth on the Industrial Revolution as he brings with such a subtlety the horrifying consequences which may wreak upon Mother Earth.
The last stanza is a conclusive summarization of Wordsworth’s feelings as he watches time just flying away with all the developments and it seems an endless pursuit, unstoppable and unmovable. He expresses this with a painful word to Mother Earth (old and worn out, bent like an old lady with her regular natural work). These melancholy feelings he carries along with his whole life as he surges towards death. The mounting up the hill may depict the Mount of Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments which here refer to Wordsworth gaining the same for knowing the fate of Industrial Revolution with the backdrop of Mother Earth’s pain and in hope of a promising answer.
This interpretation of “The Solitary Reaper “by William Wordsworth is aimed at giving a different insight into a poet’s mind as to what, how and in which way the simple things of our life can be explained or expressed with subtle scenes and picturesque depictions. I do not claim that this particular interpretation is the fruitful and legitimate interpretation of such a lovely poetry but I do stand with my opinion and my words for a discussion. I am open to your suggestions and critical review on this work of mine and if I am arguably convinced by you, I will not deter myself from correcting at any stage or point of time. Feel free to go in-depth and discover a new world of subtle expressions and hidden beauties in the simple things of our lives.
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