The thorn

William Wordsworth

1. The Thorn William Wordsworth

2. William Wordsworth ’s “ The Thorn ” was written in 1789. Wordsworth's inspiration for the setting of the poem, a mountain, came from his own experience of seeing a hawthorn tree on Quantock Hill in Somersetshire

3. The poem was included in the first volume of  Lyrical Ballads , a collection of poetry written in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and originally published anonymously. The collection is often considered the defining work that marked the beginning of the English Romantic literary movement.

4. "The Thorn." Narrated by an unreliable speaker who directly addresses the reader in a gossiping tone, the poem relays the story of a destitute woman whose lover abandoned her and left her with child. With abundant references to nature and the supernatural, "The Thorn" illustrates perfectly the way in which society can destroy the individual by first robbing him of his innocence and then condemning him for it.

5. The Thorn Summary The poem begins with the speaker’s description of an old thornbush perched high on a mountaintop. The thorn is wretched-looking, as time has caused it to become withered and covered in mosses.  The speaker  then proceeds to describe the immediate environment of the thorn in more pleasant terms, gradually revealing that this colorful and majestic scenery is in fact the probable location of a child’s grave. A woman named  Martha Ray  is a frequent visitor to this hill, as she comes to lament the child she once lost.

6. The speaker reveals the full background of the destitute Martha Ray, recounting how she was once in love with a man named  Stephen Hill . While Stephen had promised to marry her, he ultimately abandoned Martha for another woman. Martha is subsequently left heartbroken and pregnant with his child.

7. At this point, the fate of the child becomes ambiguous. The speaker reveals his own uncertainties about this supposed child (and his growing status as an unreliable narrator), relaying the different views of the local residents who gossip incessantly about the poor woman. Some say she committed infanticide due to the social stigma of the unmarried pregnant woman, while others believe the baby was stillborn.

8. In any case, no one ever saw the child and it is never confirmed that the child ever existed. Martha Ray becomes the subject of local myth, and many townspeople believe she should be held responsible for the child’s death. However, when they suggest bringing her to justice, the ground surrounding the supposed grave begins to shake—suggesting an earthquake or some supernatural force. While definitive proof of the grave is never found, the locals continue to insist that a child was indeed lost as its mother wails often on the mountaintop. The story of Martha Ray and her child remains shrouded in mystery at the poem’s conclusion, leaving the reader—like the speaker and the townspeople—to draw his own conclusions as to what really happened.

9. The Thorn Themes Nature Throughout his poetic career, Wordsworth displayed a typically Romantic preoccupation with nature and the way that the exterior natural world reflects the emotional and subconscious human interior. " The Thorn " exemplifies this Romantic trope, as the first five stanzas of the poem are completely dedicated to vivid descriptions of the thorn, lichen, moss, pond and mountain.

10. The Gothic Wordsworth's known disdain for the gothic genre manifests in the unreliability of the poem's speaker.  The speaker  is fascinated by the local superstitions and gossip about Martha Ray, which twist the tragic suffering and clear mental illness of the character into a thrilling macabre folk tale.

11. Children Children and infants are used as similes to describe the strange nature of the thorn and its accompanying heap of moss—the latter functioning as a supposed burial ground for Martha Ray's dead child in the local tales. The "scarlet moss" is said to be colored with the infant's blood, the "beauteous heap" is the size of an "infant's grave," the thorn stands at the height of a two-year-old child, and the mountain is even said to shake when disturbed by the locals, as if haunted and possessed by the ghost of the infant.

12. Weather The pathetic fallacy—ascribing emotion to non-human nature—is abundant throughout this poem. The stormy weather provides a clear mirror to Martha Ray's mystery, chaotic life, and emotional anguish.

13. Death Death is a prominent theme in the poem. It is explored through the bare winter landscape, where the only life to be seen is the rugged and gray lichen, thorns, and moss. The references to potential miscarriage, stillborn state, or infanticide also provide a grisly focus on death.

14. The Thorn Symbols, Allegory and Motifs Beauteous Heap (Symbol) The hill of moss, referred to as a "beauteous heap," could symbolize the dead baby's grave, hence why Martha Ray visits and cries "Oh Misery." The grave is hidden out of sight in a remote location, thereby suggesting that only she knows of its existence. This distance from the locals implies isolation caused by social stigma, as an unwed mother would be shunned in society.

15. The moss-hill also symbolizes the body of the infant itself. For example, the "tufts of moss" represent the hair, the shaking movement of the grass suggests the baby's movement, and the reflection in the pond symbolizes the baby's face

16. Scarlet Cloak (Symbol) The scarlet cloak that Martha wears can signify her affair outside of marriage, which resulted in a child. Similarities can be drawn with  The Scarlet Letter  by Nathaniel Hawthorne (written years later, but also part of Romantic literature), where the color red is a prevalent symbol for a seductress and adulterer. The scarlet may also symbolize blood, such as the blood of the dead child that appears to also cover the moss in drops.

17. Storm (Symbol) The weather is a symbol of the despair that Martha is experiencing. Rain, frost, and snow are all cold elements and are juxtaposed with Martha's strong feelings of obvious love and adoration for the child. They also represent the storms of her life—from falling in love to losing her lover and then her child. Martha bravely faces the storms, whereas others try to escape them. She fully embraces her pain and is haunted by it, often becoming one with nature when these storms arise.

18. The Thorn (Symbol) The thorn is a symbol of the joy and sadness that one experiences in life simultaneously—especially as one grows older and joins society. Within the context of Romantic literature, the thorn may represent how even in the most beautiful natural setting, ugliness can be found. Even something as beautiful as the moss can exist as a foe in nature, dragging the thornbush down. Beauty has the power to destroy, just as the beauty of Martha's relationship is lost when her lover abandons her. Her beautiful child is also lost, changing from a source of joy to one of utter pain. The thorn may also symbolize grief and affliction. Growing up is a kind of affliction of the human experience, as love, innocence, and truthfulness are lost.

19. The Thorn Literary Elements Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View First-person speaker who conveys the thoughts and beliefs of others, and is perhaps an unreliable narrator.

20. Form and Meter 23 stanzas of 11 lines of iambic tetrameter, except lines 4 and 9 of each stanza which are iambic trimeter . The only rhyme is a full rhyme couplet at the final two lines of each stanza

21. Metaphors and Similes "Like rock or stone" (simile)—the thornbush is compared to a rock or stone, as it stands erect. "Cuts like a scythe" (simile)—the wind is so cold and sharp that it feels like it cuts like a scythe. "Like an infant's grave in size" (simile)--the heap of earth is compared to the size of an infant's grave and is later revealed to be just that. "As if by hand of lady fair/The work had woven been" (simile)—the speaker compares the elaborate design of the moss to the carefully woven tapestry that a maiden might create.

22. " A fire was kindled in her breast" (metaphor)—the fire refers to the anguish and madness that will later take hold of Martha after Stephen's betrayal and the baby's death. "There is a Thorn—it looks so old..." (metaphor)—the thorn represents the juxtaposition of good/bad and ugly/beautiful in life, as in nature. The thorn is also a metaphor for Martha's anguish, like a thorn in her side that constantly reminds her of the loss of her child.

23. Alliteration and Assonance " poor thorn" (assonance)—the "o" sound is forlorn and mirrors Martha's mood. " prickly points " (alliteration)—the "p" consonant sound gives the thorn a meticulous description. "Like rock or stone, it is o'ergrown " (assonance)--the long "o" sound of "stone" and " o'egrown " is rather heavy, like the feeling one is given when looking at the dragged-down thorn. "the work had woven been" (alliteration)—the "w" consonant flows the way one might imagine a tapestry being threaded. " This wretched woman thither goes" (alliteration)—the " th " sound is difficult to pronounce, mirroring a difficult journey to the mountaintop. " And when the whirlwind's on the hill" (alliteration)—the repeated "w" sound flows well, like the sound of wind. "Whatever star is in the skies" (alliteration)—the repeated "s" consonant flows nicely and evokes a positive celestial image. "sober sad" (alliteration)—the repeated "s" consonant creates a soft sound that mimics the feeling of quiet loneliness.

24. Irony There is a macabre irony in the speaker's likening of the moss heap to a child's grave, as it is finally revealed that the heap is believed to actually be the burial site of an infant. The speaker claims not to know the details of Martha's story very well, yet he continues to convince the reader of certain things he knows for sure to be true.

25. Genre lyrical ballad; Romantic poetry Setting Inspired by a stormy day upon Quantock Hill, Somerset, England. The majority of the poem's description and setting occurs at a reimagined version of this location . Tone The tone is very meditative, yet the thorn is idiosyncratic in its striking melancholy and gothic overtones. Overall, the mood is alternatively somber and suspenseful.

26. Protagonist and Antagonist These two character forms are interestingly subjective and unclear in the poem. It is difficult to distinguish whether Martha Ray is a child murderer who haunts the locals or if the locals are cruel and superstitious and have no sympathy for Martha's tragic life. Stephen may also be considered an antagonist to Martha since he betrays her. On a grander scale, one might say that society is the antagonist to nature, corrupting it by taking away purity and innocence.

27. Major Conflict Martha Ray appears to be suffering deeply from some internal conflict, and the locals' treatment of Martha can be interpreted as overtly wicked. There is also natural conflict. Wordsworth describes the moss as though it is antagonizing the thorn.

28. Climax The climax occurs between stanzas 18-21, as the narrator comes face to face with Martha. The shocking revelation that she may have murdered her own child is also revealed.

29. Foreshadowing A great deal of foreshadowing takes place in the first six stanzas, with repetition of the "infant's grave in size," which foreshadows the dead infant, and "deep... vermilion dye," which is later suggested to be the child's blood.

30. Understatement "But Stephen to another maid/ Had sworn another oath" — This is a polite way of saying that Stephen betrayed Martha.

31. Allusions The "scarlet cloak" alludes to the traditional, biblical associations of female sin; it is worn by the whore of Babylon. This literary motif would be employed again in texts like Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter or Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

32. Metonymy and Synecdoche "Sad case for such a brain to hold/ Communion with a stirring child!" The Christian act of communion refers to the emotional and spiritual relationship between mother and child.

33. Personification As in other Romantic poems, nature is often personified: "And this poor thorn they clasp it round/ So close, you'd say they were bent/ With plain and manifest intent/ To drag it to the ground"—the moss is personified as a foe trying to drag the thorn to the ground as one might do to a person. "A wretched thing forlorn"—the thorn is depicted as sad and miserable. "A melancholy crop"—the thorn is sad and miserable. "To thirsty suns and parching air"—these natural elements are depicted as thirsty humans. "Or frosty air is keen and still"—the air does not move and is sharp, like a severe person. "And she is known to every star,/And every wind that blows"—the natural elements "know" Martha as if they were people.

34. Hyperbole Hyperbole is presented in the form of the locals' sensationalized superstitions in regards to Martha Ray's back story. Furthermore, Martha Ray's melodramatic wails, 'Oh misery! Oh misery!/ Oh woe is me! Oh misery!' is an example of hyperbole.

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