The Solitary Reaper Group

Question:

dahliaisabeau
dahliaisabeau
Student
High School - 12th Grade

In "The Solitary Reaper", why is this moment a significant event in the speaker's life?

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Posted by dahliaisabeau on Tuesday October 7, 2008 at 11:57 AM and tagged with significant event, speaker, the solitary reaper.

Answers:


  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Ah, a good question. This is an important experience for the speaker because it is transformative. It is transcendent; it changes the observer, and it changes the scene. It is in many ways a classic example of a moment of Romantic artistic inspiration. The speaker has to have seen workers before, but something in that one moment freezes him, making him call out " BEHOLD her, single in the field,

              Yon solitary Highland Lass!"

     

    The isolation of the girl makes the speaker realize his own isolation. Her song makes him realize how art (music) transforms daily labor; he does the same by capturing the girl in a poem. Finally, the memory is timeless, even though the girl, the moment, the song, and the experience are all ephemeral, trapped in time and soon passing. He's living a paradox.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/solitary-reaper-salem

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    Posted by gbeatty on Friday October 10, 2008 at 4:07 PM