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THE SOLITARY REAPER

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 profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt.

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.

What kind of song is the girl singing ?

Solution

Correct Option: 2

The poem describes the girl as singing a melancholy strain. Melancholic matches the word melancholy used in the poem directly.

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