Wordsworth's speaker makes this statement in the first stanza, speaking to himself. He says he has seen a young woman "reaping and singing by herself." He then says to himself, after the hard stop of a semicolon, "Stop here, or gently pass!"
He says this to himself because he has to make a decision. He can stop and listen, or he can quietly pass by the reaper, missing her singing. As he notes, he stops, saying, "O listen!"
He is well rewarded for taking out the time to stop and listen to the song the young woman sings as she reaps. It is so beautiful the speaker feels transported. To him, the singer becomes a creature of nature, like a bird but with a song even more beautiful than that of the nightingale or the cuckoo. The speaker is well rewarded for stopping and listening. Although he cannot hear the words of her song, the haunting, "plaintive" melody moves his soul. The song is also not only a momentary pleasure for him but a memory he will carry with him. He says,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
The poem is a quintessential Wordsworth piece. It exalts a common laborer, a woman reaping a crop. This is the kind of person largely overlooked in poetry before Wordsworth and Romanticism appeared on the scene. He elevates her into something lovely and natural by comparing her song to that of birds. He also shows how a simple event can live on in memory, providing repeated solace and delight.
Why does William Wordsworth say "stop here, or gently pass" in "The Solitary Reaper"?
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,And sings a melancholy strain;O listen! for the Vale profoundIs overflowing with the sound.
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Why does William Wordsworth say "stop here, or gently pass" in "The Solitary Reaper"?
The line you're referring to occurs within the first few lines of Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper," and it helps to put it in context:
Behold her, single in the field,Yon solitary Highland Lass!Reaping and singing by herself;Stop here, or gently pass! (1-4)
Further Reading
Whom is the poet Wordsworth addressing when he writes "stop here or gently pass," in the poem "The Solitary Reaper"?
This is one of Wordsworth's famous poems that describes the sight of a female reaper reaping in fields. Wordsworth is so entranced by the sight that he stops and stares and reflects on the sight. The words that your question refer to come in the first stanza, and presumably are mentioned to any who are with him or who may be passing on the same path. Note their meaning: Wordsworth is so wrapped up in the vision of the reaper and her singing that he doesn't want any interruption to alert her to his presence and to break the spell that she casts:
O listen! for the vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
Thus, although it is not specified who the words are addressed to, we can infer that they are spoken to either companions who are with Wordsworth or any other rambler who happened to be walking in the same spot.