Oh Misery!

     Lyrical Ballads sought to channel the voice of the common people. Wordsworth invoked ideas of nature, of simplicity, and of beautiful poetic diction and meter. “The Thorn” illustrates these concepts while telling the story of Martha Ray. The scarlet clad woman, who may or may not be a grief stricken, baby-killing ghost that haunts simple folk. The entire poem reads like a ghost story that the narrator is reluctant to tell. The narrator seems to display the psychology of the superstitious, as he timidly describes the lore of the woman and her illegitimate spawn. He is full of uncertainties about the myth and even his own account of the woman. His superstitious fear did not even allow him to interact with her at all, as he says “Her face!- it was enough for me: I turned about and heard her cry, Oh misery!” The fear of the narrator kept her at a distance and thus she was shroud in mystery. The fear of the unknown drives the imagination to create impossible, perverse and strange things.