Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Solitary Reaper - By William Wordsworth

This is one of those poems that comes back again and again to me. Although I had this when I was in primary school, but till date its crystal clear in my memory. I was thinking of penning down something but this poem came back again to me, thus I thought I would post the same here.
I love this because its filled with a certain kind of emotion that you can only feel but cannot tell someone. It comes out from deep within the heart and if you can connects directly to your heart. One of my favourite:

" 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 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"