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 chant
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 sorry, 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.
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Word meanings
Highland Lass : A girl who lives in the highlands of (mountain regions) of Scotland
Reaping : Cutting down and gathering a crop such as corn or rice
Melancholy strain : Sad song
Vale profound : Deep valley
Arabian sands : The deserts of Arabia(the Middle East)
Farthest Hebrides : the most remote group of islands that lie to the north-west of Scotland
plaintive numbers : Sad music
Humble lay : Ordinary song
Sickle : A tool for cutting grass and grain crops.It has a short handle and a blade shaped like a hook.
About the poet
born April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, Eng.
died April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland
major English Romantic poet and poet laureate of England (1843–50). His Lyrical Ballads (1798), written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the English Romantic movement.
Wordsworth was born in the Lake District of northern England, the second of five children of a modestly prosperous estate manager. He lost his mother when he was 7 and his father when he was 13, upon which the orphan boys were sent off by guardian uncles to a grammar school at Hawkshead, a village in the heart of the Lake District. At Hawkshead Wordsworth received an excellent education in classics, literature, and mathematics, but the chief advantage to him there was the chance to indulge in the boyhood pleasures of living and playing in the outdoors.For more ...
Labels: poem, william Wordsworth
Lightly,O lightly we bear her along,
She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;
She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream,
She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.
Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string.
Softly, O softly we bear her along,
She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;
She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,
She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride,
Lightly, O lightly we glide we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string.
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Sway - move from side to side.
Skim - glide smoothly over something
Foam : mass of small bubbles,froth
Gaily : merrily, happily
Dew : condensed drop of water
Beam : ray of light;broad smile
Brow : forehead,eyebrow(here: top of water/tide)
Labels: poem, Sarojini Naidu
