How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago: (17-20)
The speaker and the solitary reaper are on two different wave lengths. He has no idea what she's singing about, and there's nobody else around to help him understand. He seems like the one who's out of place. He seems like the foreigner.
Quote #5
I listened, motionless and still; (29)
The speaker is either dead (hello, "motionless and still"?), or trying to be really quiet and sneaky. Hmm—and why would he want to be quiet and sneaky? Well, you could say that maybe he's somewhere he doesn't belong, or maybe he knows he's watching a very special, rare event unfold before his very eyes.
Quote #6
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more. (30-32)
The woman is singing a song, and that means there are lyrics. The fact that the speaker calls it "music" again reminds us of the gap that separates him from the solitary reaper. She may be an "other," but he too remains outside the "language" of her world.