Wordsworth

Poet, William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) spent much of his life in the same area that we collect our yamadori hawthorns. The opening chapters of The Thorn describe these trees wonderfully. I'll bet that many of these small trees growing today would have been around before Mr Wordsworth!

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The Thorn

by William Wordsworth

 

                              I

“There is a Thorn—it looks so old,

In truth, you’d find it hard to say

How it could ever have been young,

It looks so old and grey.

Not higher than a two years' child

It stands erect, this aged Thorn;

No leaves it has, no prickly points;

It is a mass of knotted joints,

A wretched thing forlorn.

It stands erect, and like a stone

With lichens is it overgrown.

                             II

“Like rock or stone, it is o’ergrown,

With lichens to the very top,

And hung with heavy tufts of moss,

A melancholy crop:

Up from the earth these mosses creep,

And this poor Thorn they clasp it round

So close, you’d say that they are bent

With plain and manifest intent

To drag it to the ground;

And all have joined in one endeavour

To bury this poor Thorn for ever.

 

With lichens to the very top, and hung with heavy tufts of moss...