The solitary reaper

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.

by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) , "The solitary reaper", from Poems, Volume II, published 1807

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Mary Chandler (1911-) , "The solitary reaper", published 1959. [partsong for SS and piano]
by John Michael Diack (1869-1946) , "The solitary reaper", published 1949 [cantata for unaccompanied reader], arrangement of music by Haydn and Beethoven
by Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (1899-1973) , "The solitary reaper", published 1936. [SATB a cappella]
by William McCauley (1917-) , "The solitary reaper" [SSA a cappella]
by Geraldine Dorothy Rasmussen (1925-) , "The solitary reaper", c1969-70. [soprano and piano]
by W. F. Snell , "The solitary reaper", published 1916, unverified by catalogers (Gooch and Thatcher)
by Alec Templeton (1910-) , "Hebridean Song", published 1939, stanza 2 (-4?). [voice and piano]
by Eric Harding Thiman (1900-1975) , "The solitary reaper", published 1931.
by Leslie Walters (1902-) , "The solitary reaper", 1961, first performed 1963 [partsong for SATB a cappella], from Intimations of Mortality
by Ian Whyte (1901-1960) , "The solitary reaper", <<1960. [SATB with divisi a cappella]
by Charles Wood (1866-1926) , "The solitary reaper", published 1930. [partsong for SATB a cappella]
by William B. Wordsworth (1908-1988) , "The solitary reaper", op. 96, published 1975. [soprano, clarinet, and piano]

Date added to the website: 2008-07-18.

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