“Solitary Reaper” And “To Autumn” Compared

In the poems “The Solitary Reaper” and “To Autumn” they both have the same views on death. They both have a nicer view on death, the analogy of the harvest or autumn, and the authority imagery. In “The Solitary Reaper” when Wordsworth writes “Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland lass! Reaping and singing be herself; Stop here, or gently pass! Alone she cuts and binds the grain” the girl he is talking about is the kinder image of the reaper. In “To Autumn” the working girl that is asleep on the floor of the granary is Keats version of the kinder image of death.

The second similarity is the analogy of the harvest or autumn. In “To Autumn” the whole poem is about the harvest. In the first stanza it is the pre harvest, the second is the harvest and the third is the post-harvest. With “The Solitary Reaper” the first stanza is the image of the harvest.

Alone she cuts and binds the grain. The third similarity between the two poems is that they both use authority imagery in their poems. In “To Autumn” Keats writes at the end five different songs of nature. The singing of the gnats, the full grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn, the hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft, the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft and the gathering swallows twitter in the skies. In “The Solitary Reaper” Wordsworth use authority imagery. For example, no nightingale did ever chant, springtime from the cuckoo-bird, and the maiden sang are all authority imagery from Wordsworth. There is a beauty in the harvest and the season of autumn and there is a beauty in death.