The poem is set in the mountainous regions of Scotland. The poet is taking a walk through these Highlands when he sees something which makes him stop

The rhyme scheme is:a-b-a-b-c-c-d-dThe Form is :Lyrical BalladThe tone and atmosphere of this poem: is very calm, emotional and peaceful.Language :Simple and direct.

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 profoundIs overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chauntMore welcome notes to weary bandsOf travellers in some shady haunt,Among Arabian sands:A voice so thrilling ne'er was heardIn spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,Breaking the silence of the seasAmong the farthest Hebrides.

The first two stanza:

Once when the poet was in Scotland, he was walking past the highlands. He came across highland lass who was reaping the harvest and binding the grains all by herself. Along with her work she was singing a song. The poet was highly impressed by her singing and stopped to hear her song. Her voice was so enchanting that it seemed to the poet that she was more melodious than the nightingale

Stanza threeThe poet, even so, does not recognize the phrases of the reaper's song. He commences to speculate on the subject matter of the song. He thinks that possibly it is about an historical incident which occurred in a distant land or a battle which might have used spot decades ago. He even more wonders, whether the tune has some thing to do with the day to day daily life of the solitary reaper. He thinks that she might be singing about grief and sadness which has occurred and may well return.

Stanza fourTo the poet, it seemed that the song of the solitary reaper would not stop. She sang as she worked, bending about her sickle. For a long time the poet listened to the song, enchanted and transfixed. As he relocated up the hill, he ongoing to have the songs in his heart even following he could no extended hear it.

The poem is in the present tense (“Reaping and singing by herself….Alone she cuts and binds the grain”), but from the fourth and last stanza, it becomes clear that Wordsworth is talking about an incident which had taken place before its telling (“Whate’er the theme the Maiden sang…..I listened, motionless and still”). There is, however, a smooth transition from the present to the past.

The power of human imagination to see the transcendent in the everyday.