Tuesday, June 23, 2009

What conclusion does the poet William Wordsworth draw about the song in "The Solitary Reaper"?

In William Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper," a nameless narrator encounters a young woman singing in a field. The song is enchanting, and the narrator spends much of the poem imagining exotic locales and trying to comprehend the meaning, or theme, of the song. Though the narrator is not ultimately able to pinpoint a unified theme for the song, he does realize that the young woman's "song could have no ending" (26), and thus Wordsworth ultimately concludes that the song is an evocation of an eternal truth. Though the poet cannot define said truth, the fact that it is has "no ending" is important, as it lends a transcendent endlessness to the finite existence of the solitary reaper. Therefore, though Wordsworth does not pinpoint an ultimate meaning for the reaper's song, he does conclude that the beauty of the song accords the young woman access to a sense of the infinite, thus allowing her to transcend the limitations of her existence and attain a higher level of dignity. 

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