Solitary Reaper

William Wordsworth

Introducing Rivera, my friend whose beautiful rendition and guitar playing, feature in this recording. (Scroll to the end of the post, for the alternate version of the same poem).

On why he chose to record this poem, “When I read this poem in my sixth grade, I found it near and dear to me. It reminded me of someone yearning for lost love.”

Listen [1]

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.

[1] Rendered by Rivera.

Listen to a more interesting alternate version recorded by him. I was unsure if all the fancy guitar playing in the later version, distracts the listener from the poetry, so the former version is posted at the top.