The Solitary Reaper Questions and Answers Summary
The Solitary Reaper Summary:
On his tour to Scottish Highland, the poet William Wordsworth saw a Scottish peasant girl singing and reaping the grain all alone in a field in the valley. The girl’s melancholy note was overflowing the entire valley. The poet says that even a nightingale in an oasis in the Arabian desert could never sing such a sweet song to the tired band of travellers taking shelter in the oasis.
To the poet, the girl’s song seemed to be more melodious than the thrilling voice of a cuckoo singing in the silence of the island of Hebrides during the spring time.
The poet wanted to know what the theme of the song sung by the maiden might be. The poet anticipates the subject matter of the song might be describing some unhappy incident of the remote past. Otherwise, it might concern the battles that took place in Scotland long ago. It might also be a familiar matter of human life expressing natural sorrow, loss or pain.
The poet was of opinion that the girl’s song had no ending. Finally, the poet departed and bore the melodious note of the song to be stored up for ever and ever in the core of his heart.
The Solitary Reaper Questions and Answers
The Solitary Reaper Questions and Answers (1 – 5)
1. How did the poet portray the highland girl in the poem “The Solitary Reaper”?
Ans: The highland girl was reaper. She was seen alone in a cornfield in a valley. The reaper bent over her sickle. She was cutting and binding the grains all by herself. She was singing a melancholy song at her work to her full throat. She was lost fully in her song and work.
2. How did the poet establish the superb sweetness of the girl’s song?
Ans: The poet drew two comparisons in order to establish the superb sweetness of the reaper’s song. The song of a nightingale singing in some oasis of an Arabian desert is sweet to the bands of weary travelers at rest. But the reaper’s melodious song was sweeter than the nightingale’s. Again, her song was more thrilling than the cuckoo’s voice heard in spring in the Hebrides.
3. What were the other’s songs that Wordsworth thought of while listening to the reaper’s song?
Ans: The poet listened to the reaper’s song. He then recounted the songs of other two birds – the nightingale and the cuckoo. The song of a nightingale is a most welcome sound to the weary travelers at rest in a desert. Again, the people of the far-off Hebrides feel greatly rejoiced at the voice of a cuckoo in spring.
4. What was the poet’s experience while listening to the song of the reaper?
Ans: The poet saw a lonely girl reaping in a cornfield of a deep valley. She was singing a melancholy song to her full throat. Her song sounded very melodious. It overflowed the deep valley. The song appeared to be more welcome than the sweet note of a nightingale singing in an oasis in a desert. Even it was more thrilling than the voice of a cuckoo in spring in far-off Hebrides.
5. How did the song of the reaper impact the poet?
Ans: The poet was greatly impressed at the melody of the reaper’s song. He listened quietly. But the poet could not catch the theme of the song for its language. However, the melody got stamped on his mind. The poet carried the song of the reaper long in his heart.
The Solitary Reaper Questions and Answers (6 – 10)
6 What possible themes of the reaper’s song did the poet imagine in the poem, “The Solitary Reaper”?
Ans: The poet inferred that the reaper was singing some old unhappy events of the past or battles fought long ago. He guessed that she might be singing about some common things of everyday life such as sorrow, loss or pain happened already or might occur again.
7 “Will no one tell me what she sings?” – Why did the poet put this question?
Ans: The language of the song was quite foreign to him. The poet could not catch its meaning. He then put this question in expectation of someone’s help for the song’s theme.
8 Describe after Wordsworth, the different pictures which the reaper’s song called up when the poet was listening to it.
Ans: When the poet was listening to the song of the highland reaper in the valley, he imagined two different pictures. The first one was about a shady oasis in the Arabian desert. There a nightingale pours its sweet note to a band of travelers at rest. The other is about a scene of Hebrides in spring. The people of Hebrides feel greatly rejoiced at the thrilling voice of the bird.
9 Why did the poet refer to two places – Arabian desert and Hebrides – when he was listening to the reaper’s song?
Ans: The poet was greatly impressed with the melodious song of the reaper. He at once remembered the Arabian desert where a nightingale’s sweet song is most welcome to the weary travelers. Again, the snowy scene of the Hebrides reminded him of the thrilling voice of a cuckoo. The two places are the fit situations where songs are most welcome and sound sweetest. The poet admired the reaper’s song to be the best.
10 How far the title of the poem, “The Solitary Reaper” is significant?
Ans: The reaper is the central figure, though her song is the subject of the poem. The subject develops round the reaper. It had the charming spell on the poet’s mind. It was so sweet to hear that the poet listened motionless, and carried it long after he had left the place. The poet has described skillfully all these aspects round the reaper. It is appropriate and significant.
The Solitary Reaper Questions and Answers (11- 15)
11 How did the poet compare the reaper’s song with the two songbirds?
Ans: The poet at first compares the reaper’s song to that of the nightingale. A nightingale’s voice is sweet. But it becomes sweeter to the travellers in the deserts of Arabia. The poet again recounts in his comparison another songbird – the cuckoo of the far-off Hebrides. The cuckoo’s voice sounds to them more pleasant.
12 How did the poet bear the song of the reaper in his heart after he had left the place?
Ans: The poet says that he could no more hear the music of the highland girl as he had left the valley where he had met her. But her music left permanent impression on his mind. Her picture bending over the sickle and singing by herself still flashed in his inward eye. The music of the girl ringed in his ears, when he had left her.
13 “Breaking the silence of the seas” – Who breaks the silence of the sea? What is meant by “silence of the seas”?
Ans: The cuckoo bird breaks the icy silence of the seas around the Hebrides, a group of islands on the north-west of Scotland.
In winter season, the seas on the north-west of Scotland freeze as the sea water turns into solid ice with extreme cold. As a result, navigation becomes impossible in that part of the seas. Roar of the high waves is also not heard. Profound silence prevails all over the region.
14 “Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow” – Whose “plaintive numbers” does the poet refer to? Why does the poet think the “numbers plaintive”?
Ans: The “plaintive numbers” are of the Scottish girl reaping the corn and singing all alone in the field.
The poet thinks that the melancholy song may deal with some tragic happening of the past, or the battle which took place in the remote past and in which the Scottish people suffered great losses.
15 What attitude of the poet do you form in the poem, “The Solitary Reaper”?
Ans: William Wordsworth was an ardent lover of nature and man. He looked upon nature as a permanent source of joy. The poet loved beautiful sight and sound he ever saw or heard. He carried in his soul an everlasting impression of the melancholy note of the reaper girl’s song. The emotion that he had from the song continued to come to his mind again and again long after he had heard it.
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