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Wordsworth and Modern works William Wordsworth's The world is too much with us illustrates that with changing times, there is a coinciding shift in beliefs that is simply imperative to justify a persons place in this world. It is a work that is abundant with Wordsworth's common themes of Nature and alienation, but takes an unexpected turn on the view of how religion should be truly used. Wordsworth is a highly acclaimed master of poetry whose works were admired by generations of people, and this poem, although rather short and simple, conveys a very significant message to the poets audience. The first three lines of the poem begin by showing mans alienation from Nature.
An intense weight is bestowed upon the reader as Wordsworth conveys a sad and mournful tone. The paradox late and soon (line 1) tell us that there is in fact no time at all for man to be connected to the natural world; it is too late for man, due to the system of beliefs and moral values he has created. It also parallels the next phrase, Getting and spending (line 2). Although this phrase literally means to get and to spend (which seems to be the driving force of society that Wordsworth is eluding to), also means, coupled with late and soon, that it is too late to get or to extract meaning or comfort in Nature.
Furthermore, we are quick to spend so that we may soon find immediate happiness. The line that follows, Little we see in Nature that is ours (line 3), shows the result of that system. Humanity, Wordsworth shows us, is not without a sense of irony. We have created a very inorganic society. In doing so, the only natural thing left that we feel a kinship towards is ourselves. Moreover, the only natural thing each individual has is the heart -- and We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! (line 4).
We have traded away the very organic element that makes us human for a place in an unnatural world. The reader literally stops, as humanity has halted, at this profound exclamation. Now, Wordsworth is able to show the reader how Nature is perceived. There is a fearful and solitary mood in the next three lines: This sea bares her bosom to the moon/ The winds that will be howling at all hours/And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers (lines 4 - 6).
The sea shows herself not to us, but the moon. Furthermore, Wordsworth changes the traditional Italian form and closes the poem with the sestet in the rhyme scheme, cdc dcd; the alternating rhyme makes the sestet even more immediate and accessible to the reader. The turn takes place in the middle of the first line of the sestet. It is fitting that Wordsworth uses the word move in the first half of the line It moves us not (line 9), as this is the very point in the poem where he is moved the most. Another exclamation that recalls the previous sordid boon! (line 4) brings the reader to God and religion. However, it is unexpected that Wordsworth does not follow with a Christian God or a direct praise of Nature.
Instead, he says, Id 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. (lines 9 - 14) Wordsworth comes to the realization that religion is only a tool for recognizing Nature. He would rather be an outcast and believe in a pagan religion than be a part of todays world. It is also a commentary or suggestion to people who consider themselves religious, but are fearful of Nature. His suggestion is that if people dont recognize Nature with their own religion, then reverting back to a religion that polytheistic might be a positive alternative. Having Gods that represent different elements of Nature might make is easier to appreciate it. If the means are not bringing people to the right ends, then a change, albeit a drastic one, must occur.
The more recent poet, actually poetess, is Gwendolyn Brook. She is a poetess from Chicago, and the two poems that are going to be discussed here and compared to Wordsworth's poem are The Mother and The Sonnet Ballad. Brooks poem The Mother elaborates on a very important issue a contemporary mother has to face abortion. The tone of a poem is that of an utter regret, the narrator of a poem seems to be an embodiment of all those mothers that had to have an abortion, and thus killed their would be children.
The narrators grief is evident through the poem: You will never leave them, controlling your luscious sigh, Return for a snack of them, with gobbling mother-eye. (lines 9 10) Her poem has a lot of lines in which Brook mentions various things that a kid would have done if not the abortion: If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths, If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths (lines 18 - 22). This implies that the narrator of the poem realizes that a life taken a way means a lot of missed opportunities, and that the narrator really regrets that things had to go this way. The main idea of a poem is that although mothers sometimes prefer to have an abortion, this will be remembered by them till the end of their lives. An abortion is something that leaves a huge scar on a womans identity, since she realizes that she has taken life away from her own child.
Abortions will not let you forget (line 1). Brook definitely believes that abortion is wrong, and her poem conveys a message for all those mothers that are considering abortion. The Mother suggests that an abortion will lead to an ultimate breakdown of a womans personality, since she would regret till the rest of her life about this terrible thing she has done. The next poem to be looked at in this report is The Sonnet Ballad, which is also a rather interesting poem that has some convincing points. I assume that the narrator of a poem is a young woman that addresses her mother. It is quite reasonable to assume so, since daughters always want to talk to their mothers when something bad happens, which is obviously the case in this particular poem: Oh mother, mother, where is happiness? (line 1).
The young woman at issue here has list her loved one, who has supposedly died in a war: Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew When he went walking grandly out that door That my sweet love would have to be untrue. (lines 6 - 8) Those lines imply that the woman had thought about such a possibility. She loved a person that died during a war a lot, and she thought that such a great love could not last forever. In this poem, Brook elaborates on how death can end one of the greatest feelings humans can experience love. The narrator of a story has lost a person she loved, and she knows that this is because of war.
Brooks message in the story is twofold: love can end sometime, no matter how great and promising it might seem; war is something that causes people to suffer, it is something inherently bad and wrong. The poem itself concentrates on a grief of a narrator over a person that has died because of war this grief is overwhelming and quite understandable by the general audience. The young womans feelings are familiar to many people that have lost their loved ones due to some causes that are not essentially right. Brook illustrates how a wrong cause can end a great beginning in her work. It is evident when we compare the work of William Wordsworth to the more recent work of Brooks that the latest works have embodied the romantic inheritance. Although the poems are quite different in terms of topics and appeal to the reader, the romantic elements are apparent in Brooks poems, especially when we look at the Wordsworth's poem first and then compare all the three works.
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