A friend of Wordsworth's, while traveling in the
Highlands of Scotland, was impressed by the
beautiful singing voice of a girl whom he saw
working alone in a field; he wrote in his
diary--"the sweetest human voice I ever heard. The
strains felt delicious long after they were heard
no more." Wordsworth had traveled through the same
country, and from the note and his own impressions
he built up this poem. The first stanza gives the
real picture, the second offers two
comparisons--the nightingale and the cuckoo--one
sad, the other happy, both associated with solitude
and open spaces. The third stanza relates the girl
and her song to the background of history and human
experience that belongs to the scene; and the last
refers to Wordsworth's delight in recalling
beautiful things.
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, 5
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No nightingale did ever chant
More welcome notes to weary bands 10
Of travelers in some shady haunt
Among Arabian sands;
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In springtime from the cuckoo bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas 15
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, 5
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; 10
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 15
Long after it was heard no more.
1. Describe what is seen and heard. To what bird
songs is the girl's voice compared? Have you ever
heard the song of the nightingale? What widely
different places are thought of in the second
stanza? What have the desert and the sea in common?
Where are the Hebrides?
2. Explain: numbers, lay, sickle, lass, vale,
profound.
3. What in this poem reminds you of "The
Daffodils?" How is the theme identical with
Longfellow's "The Arrow and the Song?"
* * * * *
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.
--_Ralph Waldo Emerson._
_IN GOOD HUMOR_
_He is twice blessed who has a sense of humor; he
is saved from taking too seriously the shortcomings
of his fellows; and he makes glad the hearts of his
friends. For it has been wisely said that humor is
the measure of a gentleman, even as its possession
distinguishes civilized from savage man._
[Illustration: THE STAGECOACH
(_See opposite page_)]