Wordsworth's
"The Thorn" is quite a dark and shuddersome poem about a woman's
hardship dealing with the loss of her baby. The fact that this poem is a
retelling makes it more difficult to follow what's going on and what
actually happened to the woman's baby because the narrator is just as
confused about the situation at hand as we are.
"The
Thorn" begins with a description of a grey thorn upon a mountain top,
which is where the narrator and villagers believe her baby is buried.
The big question that surfaces when reading the poem is: did she kill
her baby? No one in the village truly knows what happened to her baby;
some say that the baby was drowned in "the pond," others believe the
baby was not born alive, which is what I believe after our read.
The
thorn could represent the woman's sadness. Before her lover abandoned
her and before the loss of her baby, she was happy. The "beauteous hill of
moss" could represent her once-happiness and the beauty of her child and
her innocence.
"The
Thorn" leaves us with many questions, like a J.J. Abrams flick. However, as readers, we can
connect with the story because of its use of nature, which is something that encompasses us. This was an interesting read to say the least.
While reading "The Thorn" for the forth time, I began to doubt the credibility of the narrator almost completely. He is obviously missing some key details about the lady and chooses to embellish (or out-right fabricate) the fate of the baby.
ReplyDeleteIf the townsfolk are just as clueless as the narrator is, is it possible that the there was no baby and the woman is completely crazy? Perhaps the baby-story is just the villagers' attempt to rationalize the woman's insane behavior? I'm doubtful that either of these interpretations are correct.
The most disturbing part of this story is not the possible fate of the baby or the mother driven insane by misery, but rather the villagers who obsess over it. The humane thing to do is not seek explanation for her behavior but to instead leave her in peace and respect a woman who has been driven to the edge with sadness.