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. 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.
Wishing to break away from the formality and rigidity of 18th century English poetry, Wordsworth and Coleridge embraced the common language of the lower and middle classes in order to convey raw human emotions. Most of the poems are dramatic in form, revealing the character of the speaker. The collection as a whole relays the pureness of nature and the need for mankind to return to a simpler time and place, uncorrupted by society. In the prelude to the second volume, Wordsworth pronounces the poets’ desire to “choose incidents and situations from common life” recounted through “language really used by men.” Indeed, these elements are prevalent in "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.
The collection received a generally favorable critical response upon publication and sold well. However, some critics have questioned how revolutionary the work truly is and what values the poets intended to convey. As both Wordsworth and Coleridge embraced the ideals of the French Revolution as young men, some have argued that the collection is a criticism of English values and social conditions. Other critics, however, have pointed out that the poets merely champion humanitarian causes and stop short of advocating for political activism. Regardless of critics’ differing perspectives, one may view the collection, and thus “The Thorn” specifically, as a work in which provincial life and pure human emotion are fully embraced through a direct, vernacular style that changed the course of English literature.
