It's often argued that the main idea of William Wordsworth's "The Solitary Reaper" is the representation/examination of how even the most ordinary people, things, or occurrences can access a more significant reality. This idea can be clearly seen within the poem, as the narrator uses precise and carefully constructed imagery to transform a simple event (the observation of a young woman singing in a field) into a representation of an important, endless source of meaning. Wordsworth creates this effect by connecting the image of the singing woman to images of exotic locales. Consider, for instance, the following lines from the second stanza:
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands... (9-12)
In these lines, Wordsworth whisks us away from the highlands and takes us to the Middle East, using the image of the distant "Arabian sands" to expand the reality represented by the solitary reaper. Suddenly, she's not just a normal woman singing while she works; rather, she is connected to a vast source of significance and meaning. All in all, Wordsworth uses vibrant imagery to signify that even someone as common as a field worker has access to a deeper and more meaningful reality.
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