The Reaper by William Wordsworth
Wordsworth read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------------\n\nThe Reaper \nby William Wordsworth (1770 \u2013 1850)\n\nBehold her, single in the field,\nYon solitary Highland Lass!\nReaping and singing by herself;\u2014\nStop here, or gently pass!\nAlone she cuts and binds the grain,\nAnd sings a melancholy strain;\nO listen! for a vale profound\nIs overflowing with the sound.\nNo nightingale did ever chant\nMore welcome notes to weary bands\nOf travellers in some shady haunt\nAmong Arabian sands;\nNo sweeter voice was ever heard\nIn springtime from the cuckoo-bird,\nBreaking the silence of the seas\nAmong the farthest Hebrides.\n\nWill no one tell me what she sings?\u2014\nPerhaps the plaintive numbers flow\nFor old, unhappy, far-off things,\nAnd battles long ago,\nOr is it some more humble lay,\nFamiliar matter of to-day?\nSome natural sorrow, loss, or pain,\nThat has been, and may be again!\n\nWhate\u2019er the theme, the maiden sang\nAs if her song could have no ending;\nI saw her singing at her work,\nAnd o\u2019er the sickle bending;\u2014\nI listen\u2019d till I had my fill;\nAnd, as I mounted up the hill,\nThe music in my heart I bore\nLong after it was heard no more.