The World Is Too Much with Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. --Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

In the early 19th century, English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth wrote several sonnets addressing humanity’s invariable destruction of nature. Within the poem “The World is too much with us” is one such work. It reflects Wordsworth’s view that it is essential for humanity to connect with nature in order to progress both spiritually and mentally.

This poem can be categorized as a pertarchan sonnet. The rhyme scheme of the poem is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a in the octave, and c-d-c-d c-d in the sestet. This poem uses the sestet, which would be the last six lines, to answer the octave, which would be the first eight lines. In other words, the first eight lines the problem, and the last six lines are the solution.

The problem, according to the speaker, is that humanity does not appreciate nature, and consequently, is destroying it beyond repair. In the sestet of the poem, the speaker passionately proposes a solution to this problem. The speaker wishes he could have been raised as a pagan, so he could still see ancient gods in the actions of nature and thereby gain spiritual solace. His thunderous “Great God”, indicates the extremity of his wish- in a heavily Christian England, being a pagan was regarded as sinful, which furthermore illustrates his loyalty towards protecting nature. In the verse "I, standing on this pleasant lea, have glimpses that...