Tuesday, August 20, 2013

What are examples of hyperbole and alliteration in the poem "The Solitary Reaper"?

In the first stanza, the speaker describes the reaper's song. Alliteration is certainly effective in communicating a musical quality, so the speaker's words sound more musical here, and this is meant to mirror the reaper's singing. Note the repetition of "S" and "L" sounds in the first line. The repetition of "s" and "w" in the final line gives the song a flowing quality:



And sings a melancholy strain; 


O listen! for the Vale profound 


Is overflowing with the sound. 



The speaker gets hyperbolic in the second stanza. Here, Wordsworth takes an ordinary experience and, using his imagination, interprets it as something extraordinary. The speaker welcomes the reaper's song and supposes that he is more grateful to hear it than weary travelers who hear a bird's song signaling that they are close to their destination.



Since the speaker does not understand the girl's dialect, he can only imagine what she must be singing about. In the third stanza, he supposes it might be about some dramatic battle, long ago. But then he comes down from that hyperbolic notion and adds that it might be a more "humble lay." In the last stanza, he adds that she sang "as if her song could have no ending." In a sense, for him, her song indeed has no ending because it stays with him "Long after it was heard no more."

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