Skip to main content

Who is the solitary reaper? How does Wordsworth describe her?

At the most basic level, William Wordsworth's solitary reaper is a nameless young woman singing to herself as she works in a field. The narrator of the poem refers to her as "Yon solitary Highland Lass!" (2), and she appears to be a normal, relatively uninteresting commoner. However, the narrator describes the reaper's song with such vivid detail that, although she might be a common laborer, she is ultimately elevated to a level of significant importance by the end of the poem. 


Wordsworth focuses most of his description on the sound of the reaper's song, and he describes it in great detail. First, he compares it to a "Nightingale" (9), which then causes him to imagine "weary bands / Of travellers in some shady haunt, / Among Arabian sands" (10-12). Then, however, Wordsworth imagines that the song refers to "old, unhappy, far-off things, / And battles long ago" (20), suggesting that her song is less of an exotic tale and more of a sorrowful narrative. In any case, Wordsworth describes the reaper's song in rich, complex, and even conflicting detail. The fact that he does so is central to the poem, as the rich description of the reaper's song shows that a vital complexity can be found in even the most "common" sources. Thus, though she is simply a normal, anonymous person working in a field, the solitary reaper becomes an individual of great importance. It is fitting, therefore, that Wordsworth concludes that "her song could have no ending" (26).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more