THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH - VOL. 2 (Completed)

THE SOLITARY REAPER

Composed between 1803 and 1805.--Published 1807

One of the "Poems of the Imagination" in 1815 and 1820.--Ed.

Behold her, single [1] 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 [2]

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard [3]

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas [A]

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 [4]

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; [5]

And, as [6] I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore,

Long after it was heard no more.

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:1807.

... singing ...MS.]

[Variant 2:1827.


So sweetly to reposing bands 1807.]

[Variant 3:1837.

No sweeter voice was ever heard 1807.

... sound ... MS.

Such thrilling voice was never heard 1827.]

[Variant 4:1815.

... sung 1807.]

[Variant 5:1820.

I listen'd till I had my fill: 1807.]

[Variant 6:1807.

And when ... 1827.

The text of 1837 returns to that of 1807.]

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:

Compare 'The Ancient Mariner'(part ii. stanza 6):

'And we did speak only to break

The silence of the sea.'

Ed.]

The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's 'Recollections' of the Tour: 13th Sept. 1803.

"As we descended, the scene became more fertile, our way being pleasantly varied--through coppices or open fields, and passing farm-houses, though always with an intermixture of cultivated ground. It was harvest-time, and the fields were quietly--might I be allowed to say pensively?-- enlivened by small companies of reapers. It is not uncommon in the more lonely parts of the Highlands to see a single person so employed. The following poem was suggested to William by a beautiful sentence in Thomas Wilkinson's 'Tour in Scotland.'"

In a note appended to the editions 1807 to 1820, Wordsworth wrote:

"This Poem was suggested by a beautiful sentence in a MS. 'Tour in Scotland,' written by a Friend, the last line being taken from it verbatim."

The first part of Wilkinson's 'Tours to the British Mountains', which was published in 1824, narrates his journey in Scotland (it took place in 1787); and the following sentence occurs in the record of his travels near Loch Lomond (p. 12),

"Passed a female who was reaping alone: she sung in Erse, as she bended over her sickle; the sweetest human voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were heard no more."

There can be no doubt that this is the sentence referred to both by Dorothy and William Wordsworth. Thomas Wilkinson was the friend, in whose memory Wordsworth wrote the poem 'To the Spade of a Friend,composed while we were labouring together in his pleasure-ground'. They were comparatively near neighbours, as Wilkinson lived near Yanwath on the Emont; and he had given his MS. to the Wordsworth family to read. I have received some additional information about this MS., and Wordsworth's knowledge of it, from Mr. Wilson Robinson, who writes,

"From all the evidence, I conclude that Wilkinson's 'Tour to the Highlands' was shown in manuscript to his friends soon after his return;--that he was not only willing to show it, but even to allow it to be copied, though reluctant to publish it;--that there was sufficient intimacy between him and the Wordsworths to account for his showing or lending the manuscript to them, especially as they had travelled over much of the same ground, and would therefore be more interested in it; and that in fact it was never published till 1824."


When Wordsworth was living at Coleorton during the late autumn of 1806 he wrote to Wilkinson:

"... What shall I say in apology for your Journal, which is now locked up with my manuscripts at Grasmere. As I could not go over to your part of the country myself, my intention was to have taken it with me to Kendal ... to be carefully transmitted to you; unluckily, most unluckily, in the hurry of departure, I forgot it, together with two of my own manuscripts which were along with it; and I am afraid you will be standing in great need of it.... If you do not want it, it is in a place where it can take no injury, and I may have the pleasure of delivering it to you myself in the spring...."

Ed.

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