• English Literature- Classical & Modern Poetry

• Paradise Lost, Book I to Book III
• The Rape of The Lock
• The Ancient Mariner
• Metaphysical Poetry of John Donne
• Poetry of Philip Larkin
• Poetry of Surrey and Wyatt Poetry
• Songs of Innocence And Experience
• Coleridge As a Romantic Poet
• John Keats as a Romantic Poet
• Poetry of Ted Hughes
• Mystic Poetry of William Blake
• Leisure by William Davies
• Tartary by De La Mare
• New Year Resolutions by Elizabeth Sewell
• Woman Work by Maya Anagelou
• Rebel by D.J Enright
• The Huntsman, A folklore
• Solitary Reaper, William wordsworth
• Ariel by Sylvia Plath
• After Apple Picking Summary
• After Apple Picking Themes
• Because I Could Not Stop for Death
• Departure and Arrival by T.S Eliot
• Kubla Khan by S.T Coleridge
• Lights out
• Hawk's Monologue by Ted Hughes
• When I have Fears by John Keats
• Ode to Grecian Urn Summary
• Ode to Grecian Urn Critical Appreciation
• Ode to Autumn by John Keats
• Ode to A Nightingale by John Keats
• IF by Rudyard Kipling
• Daffodils by Wordsworth
• The Second Coming: Yeats
• One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
• All The World's a Stage

Critical Summary of Solitary Reaper and analysis, a romantic poem by Wordsworth

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To Wordsworth, "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions". Wordsworth is a romantic poet. Once he passes a valley and listens to the song of a girl. The song is in some different language but Wordsworth likes this song very much. The girl, unaware of Wordsworth, keeps on singing spontaneously and continues cutting the grain. He declares it even more beautiful than the song of nightingale and cuckoo bird.

He listened "motionless and still". Wordsworth says that the "vale profound was overflowing with the sound". The poet says tha it seemed as if the whole valley was attentive to the maiden's song. The poet is careless as to the meaning of the song, what matters is the song.

He was Wordsworth does not know what the song is about; a war, a calamity, love or else. He can never forget the beauty and spontaneity of the song: "the music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more". Beauty is an immortal object to all romantic poets. John Keats says:

"Beauty is truth, truth is beauty
That's all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".

An objection may be raised for how Wordsworth could like the song without understanding it. It goes very simple because if we can like the song of a "Nightingale" without understanding the meaning of its sounds, in the same way the song of the maiden is liked by the poet. For:

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever".

The poem, "Solitary Reaper", is a classic illustration of Romantic poetry with typical Wordsworth's style. We know Wordsworth for creating awe inspiring natural scenes that create everlasting impact on the readers' hearts and minds. The romantic appeal of the poem could not be ignored keeping in view the music, rhythm, allusions and inferences as well as the spontaneity of the emotions flowing from either from the lonely maiden that "cuts and binds the grain" while singing. The most extreme level of emotional and romantic appeal is the impact that is created by drawing the unseen yet visible lines between the sweetness of human emotions and its spontaneity by crossing the barriers of language and clime.