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The World is Too Much With Us "The world is Too Much With Us" is a very strong and emotional poem. This poem was written almost two hundred years ago. William Wordsworth loved nature and based many of his poems on it. He uses very strong diction to get his point and feelings across. This poem expresses Wordsworth's feeling about nature and religion. It contains a melodic rhythm.
Each line and each word were chosen very carefully to express his thoughts and feelings. His references to God and Greek Gods catch the reader's eye to find out why he connects God to nature. His soft tones and harsh words make the reader feel and see what the speaker does. Overall, I think the author is connecting how times have changed and the people, just dont have faith left.
In my opinion, I feel the writer is certainly the speaker. I feel that his great love for nature and any harm that has and shall come to it has shown forth. He expresses negativity towards anything that does not se natures beauty, utilizing this to show something needs to be done. He also expresses his religious beliefs of how God is connected to nature.
I think this poem goes even further portraying greed and modernization for the worst. He makes connections to the past and the future (line 1) "late and soon" proving that the world has changed. People take advantage of mother-nature and life as well. I think this is far more intense than what we see, which is little, (line 3), but how we act and what we believe in. He connects nature to human relations and religion.
He is expressing how people lost faith not only in nature but in God and beliefs as well. The setting of this poem is stated right in the poem, (line 11). The speaker is standing on a "pleasant lea" or a pretty meadow or grassland, looking down upon a piece of land. I would think it was also near a body of water with a great view but no one takes the time to stop and admire the beauty. This is disturbing to the speaker, he can't understand why the people don't see the beauty or even care. This setting may be Illusionary, like a vision.
He may be referring to a past incident or imagining it. I think the time was around two hundred years ago in the early 1800 's, probably early spring and dusk. This is fairly evident in line five through seven because it says moon starting to show and the winds howling that are beginning to calm, and the "sleeping flowers" that are not yet bloomed. The winter is over and the cold harsh winter winds are calming, and the flowers are getting ready to bloom.
The imagery is dominating the theme as well as the motifs. Some of the images are: the moon, the flowers, the winds howling, the sea, and the pleasant lea. This obviously creates a very strong nature motif. Essentially the author is praising nature and showing off its great beauty throughout the poem. A second motif is illustrated by religion and worshipping of the Greek gods.
Such phrases as, " Great God! Id rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn" (lines 9 & 10), are connecting how people dont care nature and he would rather be a man of no religion, and just be a man of nature. In lines fourteen and fifteen he makes references to Greek God's Proteus and Triton, god's of the sea, and gods of nature. This also dominates a part of the theme, referencing how the nature was worshiped, there were gods of the sun and gods of the sea, everything was more polytheistic. People have narrowed down their beliefs and lost faith. This also creates allusion from the past with reference to the Greek Gods and Greek mythology.
There are a few other very strong figures of speech created by Mr. Wordsworth throughout the poem. One is simile, (line 6 & 7), "the winds that are howling are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers. " They are connected by like, and comparing how the winds are calming now, like flowers. The flowers are not yet bloomed; they are quite and the petals are closed from the natural activity of receiving no sunlight. This shows the natural activity of nature and connects to how we don't understand why everything happens. In this very same line, (line 7), "sleeping flowers" is also displaying personification.
This is displayed by showing flowers, something inhuman, and giving them human qualities such as sleeping. Metaphor is also created in a couple of lines throughout the poem. "Sleeping flowers" (line 7), again comparing when there is no sun, how the flowers react. In line fourteen " wreathed horn" is just comparing the shape of the horn and "sordid boon" (line 4) is comparing something beneficial that is morally degrading; even know it is good it is also bad. These help to express the speaker's feelings and to understand his power in his beliefs. Euphony is used in phrases like, "Sleeping flowers" and "pleasant lea" (line 7 & 11). These make the readers tone soft directly following high, harsh tones creating cacophony in "howling winds" and "pagan suckled" (line 6 & 10).
This allows the readers to change tones periodically and feel what in sense the speaker is feeling. The poem displays a very obvious rhyme scheme using A, B, C and D's. The end rhyme is not consistent, but changing. It doesnt follow anyone specific pattern.
Words like suckled, creed, forlorn, waste, too much, and howling create a negative connotation and maybe even a negative and third motif. These words make you believe that it is hopeless; he is sad and suffering. He creates this negativity to express his anguish about the destruction of nature. Throughout the poem the diction that was chosen seems to be very specific in the sense th he chose words like, "getting and spending" instead of buying and selling, and "bares" instead of exposes, and "sleeping" instead of dosing.
These particular words could have been chosen for any number of reasons. I think that these words were chosen to get the reader's attention and get his point across. I think getting and spending shows common use to the common people and there ignorance. Bares sounds strong and more showy and sleeping is also more deep then dozing. He wanted all of his views taken very seriously so he chose only specific diction that would call direct attention to. When the gods, Triton and Proteus, are mentioned I think they are defiantly put in to make a statement.
He is showing how nature was praised. In early civilizations and cultures people worshiped many gods and many were gods of nature. This he was metaphorically explaining how nature is very important and used to be worshipped. Now people pollute nature and take it for granted.
Also many societies now are monotheistic and all the gods are known only as myths and fiction. In the title alone, "The World is Too Much With Us", Mr. Wordsworth is stating a very argumentative and conflicting phrase. I think the meaning is that nature alone fulfills the world as a whole with us in it " it is too much" (line 1). We have and will ruin all the beauty. Along time ago nature was praised and now it is polluted and the people dont even care.
Nature is very important and in Wordsworth's time god was very connected. Now we are more of a monotheistic society; and we don't care as much about nature and we take it for granted. Long ago it was very sacred. The combination of the various poetic devices and Wordsworth's talent worked together to promote a very influential piece of work. Time provides opportunity as well as despair and failure.
We can only get in return what we give. The riches of the world (nature) can be everlasting depending on how we cherish and perceive them. There can either be limits or life can be totally limitless depending only upon ourselves and our powers that enable us to care, believe and have faith. Bibliography: William Wordsworth's Poems, in Two Volumes (1807): A Facsimile (London: British Library, 1984).
bib MASS (Massey College Library, Toronto). Liu Alan Poetry for Young People: William Wordsworth Sterling Publications, 2003
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