The Reaper by William Wordsworth
b'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.'