The poem begins with the speaker’s description of an old thornbush perched high on a mountaintop. The thorn is wretched-looking, as time has caused it to become withered and covered in mosses. The speaker then proceeds to describe the immediate environment of the thorn in more pleasant terms, gradually revealing that this colorful and majestic scenery is in fact the probable location of a child’s grave. A woman named Martha Ray is a frequent visitor to this hill, as she comes to lament the child she once lost.
The speaker reveals the full background of the destitute Martha Ray, recounting how she was once in love with a man named Stephen Hill. While Stephen had promised to marry her, he ultimately abandoned Martha for another woman. Martha is subsequently left heartbroken and pregnant with his child.
At this point, the fate of the child becomes ambiguous. The speaker reveals his own uncertainties about this supposed child (and his growing status as an unreliable narrator), relaying the different views of the local residents who gossip incessantly about the poor woman. Some say she committed infanticide due to the social stigma of the unmarried pregnant woman, while others believe the baby was stillborn. In any case, no one ever saw the child and it is never confirmed that the child ever existed. Martha Ray becomes the subject of local myth, and many townspeople believe she should be held responsible for the child’s death. However, when they suggest bringing her to justice, the ground surrounding the supposed grave begins to shake—suggesting an earthquake or some supernatural force. While definitive proof of the grave is never found, the locals continue to insist that a child was indeed lost as its mother wails often on the mountaintop. The story of Martha Ray and her child remains shrouded in mystery at the poem’s conclusion, leaving the reader—like the speaker and the townspeople—to draw his own conclusions as to what really happened.
