Student Question
What actions do the travellers take in the Arabian sands?
Quick answer:
In the poem, the travelers in the Arabian sands are weary and would find the nightingale's song a welcome relief. The sound would signal a return to civilization, offering them comfort and hope as they traverse the harsh desert. This imagery is used to emphasize the beauty of the solitary reaper's song, which the speaker finds even more delightful than the nightingale's notes would be to the desert travelers.
The speaker of the poem is giving us a very positive estimation of the solitary reaper's beautiful, beguiling song. He compares her song to that of the nightingale, a bird especially renowned for the beauty of its song. One might expect that, though her song is undoubtedly beautiful, the solitary reaper's delightful melody cannot compete with that of the nightingale. Yet the speaker immediately challenges our expectations by drawing a comparison that actually flatters the solitary reaper:
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
With pardonable exaggeration, the speaker believes that the notes of the solitary reaper's song are even more welcome to him than the sweet melody of the nightingale would be to travelers in the Arabian deserts.
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