What does 'thwart mean in this poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton? The poem is titled ‘A Destiny’:
Shame, like a marble statue at his door,
Flung her ’thwart shadow o’er his threshold stone;
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3 Answers
Since there's an apostrophe in front of the word, it seems like it should be a shortening of another word. The only possible such word is athwart, which means crosswise, obliquely.
In the OED, there's no definition of an adjective meaning of athwart; however, there is an adjective meaning of thwart which fits the poem quite well:
thwart: Of persons or their attributes: Disposed to resist, oppose, or obstruct; cross-grained; perverse, froward, obstinate, stubborn, awkward.
Quite possibly, the poet was under the misconception that this definition was a shortening of athwart. The adverb athwart and the adjective thwart are certainly etymologically related
So if we use this definition, "shame's shadow" is stubbornly pursuing them and destroying their love and happiness.
Let me add that dropping the a- prefix when going from adverb to adjective is something that happened not uncommonly in Middle English; a- originally was a prefix that applied to adverbs and prepositions, but not often to adjectives or verbs. For example:
A crossbar is a bar that goes across two uprights,
If you run away a lot, you are wayward,
If you sit astride something, you have straddled it.
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1Might it not be that by adding the apostrophe, the poet intended to suggest both meanings?– WGroleauCommented Aug 27 at 5:26
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3This seems like the only interpretation that makes proper sense. It’s clear from the context that Shame personified is not flinging the female protagonist across shadow over the threshold stone, but is throwing its (‘her’) own shadow over the threshold stone. Commented Aug 27 at 10:25
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Explanations that make "proper sense" have limited value in poetry (remember that shame doesn't throw shadow on stone at all). I like @WGroleau's suggestion that it might be an associative mix of meanings, although the orthography strongly suggests the one not favored in this answer. This too can be on purpose (emphasis in art directs attention)– seheCommented Aug 27 at 10:39
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@sehe Metaphors don’t inhibit making sense. Even poetry mostly has to be grammatically and semantically parseable, otherwise it’s just plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee (which of course some poetry is, but not not this particular poem). Commented Aug 28 at 13:57
"Athwart", meaning "across" or "crosswise", but (outside of a technical nautical meaning) with a negative connotation, as in something lying across (blocking) one's path.
Wiktionary has "Across the path of something, so as to impede progress" and "Against the anticipated or appropriate course of something; improperly, perversely, wrongly".
In the context of the poem, wherever the couple went, shame threw a shadow across them and their home ("threshold stone", their doorway).
Shame, like a marble statue at his door,
Flung her ’thwart shadow o’er his threshold stone;
Still darken'd all their daylight hours, and kept
Cold watch above them even while they slept
Apostrophes are used all over this work to mark missing letters, so there's pretty clearly a missing 'a'. As others have said, "thwart" and "athwart" are closely related words, but "athwart" isn't an adjective and doesn't fit grammatically. Well, 'tis a poem and the meaning is more important. "Athwart" means "crosswise", and things that are crosswise tend to block forward progress. "Thwart" means "to counter", "to foil", "to prevent". A shadow is not very good at resisting, impeding or countering, but it can cross. The emphasis here is on the "crosswise" aspect.
The statue flung its crosswise shadow over the threshold. It may be crosswise because the statue is vertical and the floor is horizontal. After reading this far too many times, I believe the shadow is crosswise like a curtain across the doorway or even a bubble around his home (synecdoche).
The athwart gate sat athwart the doorway, thwarting access.
