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JAMB UTME - Literature In English - 1998

Question 1 Report

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.

What is the poet-persona's feeling for the reaper in Wordsworth's 'The Solitary Reaper'?

Answer Details
In Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper," the poet-persona's feeling for the reaper is admiration. The poem describes the reaper as she sings a "melancholy strain" while working in the fields. The poet is struck by the beauty of her song and the way it seems to echo throughout the valley. The poem emphasizes the power of music to evoke emotion and transport the listener to another time and place. The poet's admiration for the reaper and her song is clear in lines such as "Will no one tell me what she sings?— / Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things, / And battles long ago." The poem suggests that the beauty of art, and particularly of music, can transcend time and place and speak to universal human emotions.