A ROMANTIC POET

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

 

  BIRTH DAY  ON   7th April

Born	(1770-04-07)7 April 1770 Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died	23 April 1850(1850-04-23) (aged 80) Cumberland, United Kingdom
Occupation	Poet
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Literary movement	Romanticism
Notable work(s)	Lyrical Ballads, Poems in Two Volumes, The Excursion, The Prelude (an auto biography)

 

                "The Solitary Reaper "

             A POEM  written 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.

This is one of the poems that my mother used to read to me. I would close my eyes and listen to his voice rise and fall. And when   she would say the lines, " Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!", my heart and mind would stop for a second and then again move along with the poem. Its one of my favourite.

                            collected by 

                                                    DEVI.G  

                                                 FORMER STUDENT