Wordsworth and Writing his Defense

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the themes in Wordsworth's poems "The Idiot Boy," and "The Thorn," in order to show how he used his poetry as a means to escape the pain that he felt in his own life. By using characters in his poetry that parallel people from his own life, Wordsworth was able to examine his own guilt, tension, and anxiety, by means of creating a scenario that does not directly involve himself.

From the Paper:

"The narrator of this poem, whom is male, is used to show the reader that he understands what he has done. He wants us to understand, that he [Wordsworth] understands, the restrictions and expectations that society has bestowed upon women. In line 51 the word "dyes" can also mean "dies." If read with the double meaning the line looks more like "beauteous deaths," giving the notion of beauty as killing. Youth is emphasized in "infant's grave." The hill of moss although colorful and lively is the grave of the female self. Young women are given their 3x2 boundaries of wife and mother. Their identities are buried, and as life shifts along these hills of moss turn to ugly thorns. Wordsworth makes his love and admiration of women, along with his remorse and hopes of making peace with his situation evident through this poem. He wants the reader to realize that Martha Ray, as well as, Vallon, should not be made outcasts and emotionally tortured because of the wrong doings of a man."

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