THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

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

William Wordsworth

“The world is too much with us” is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it, Wordsworth criticizes the modern world for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. In the early 1800s, Wordsworth wrote several sonnets blasting what he perceived as “the decadent material cynicism of the time.” The world is too much with us” is one of those works. It reflects his philosophy that humanity must get in touch with nature in order to progress spiritually.

The poem is written from a place of angst and frustration. All around him, Wordsworth sees people who are obsessed with money and with manmade objects. These people are losing their powers of divinity, and can no longer identify with the natural world.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is abbaabbacdcdcd

* The speaker begins this poem by saying that the world is too full of humans who are losing their connection to divinity and, even more importantly, to nature. Humans, the speaker says, have given their hearts away, and the gift is a morally degraded one:

“The world is too much with us; …

→ expresses Wordsworth’s belief that his contemporaries were too absorbed in material things. The material world, he suggests, is always foremost in our minds.

…late and soon,”

→ describe how the past and future are included in his characterization of mankind.

“Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

→ Wordsworth does not see us as incapable in fact he describes our abilities as “powers”

“Little we see in Nature that is ours;”

→ shows that coexisting is the relationship envisioned. This relationship appears to be at the mercy of mankind because of the vulnerable way nature is described

“We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

→ the materialistic progress of mankind. Humanity has become self-absorbed and can no longer think clearly.

* In the second quartet the speaker tells the reader that everything in nature, including the sea and the winds, is gathered up in a powerful connection with which humanity is “out of tune.” In other words, humans are not experiencing nature as they should:

“This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon”,

→ gives the vision of a woman exposed to the heavens.

“The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers”,

→ describe how nature is being overrun unknowingly and is helpless.

“For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.”

* The speaker ends the poem by saying that he would rather be a pagan attached to a worn-out system of beliefs than be out of tune with nature. At least if he were a pagan he might be able to see things that would make him less unhappy, like the sea gods Proteus and Triton:

“-Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;”

→Wordsworth affirms that he would prefer to be “A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn” than to be “out of tune” with nature

“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.”

→ show Wordsworth as a visionary who is not responsible for the destruction of nature.

Wordsworth reaches back into ancient Greece for their gods who symbolize nature and strength to make the change. Proteus is seen rising from the sea, facing the injustices inflicted upon nature, placing the cycle of life back in balance. Proteus was a sea god who could change his appearance to elude capture. The ability to change one’s appearance is critical in facing the variety of threats mankind might impose. The god Triton was mentioned as a savior to nature as well. Triton was the most imposing of the gods (excluding Zeus) because he was master of the seas. Wordsworth selected a sea god as the savior to the world to represent a re-birth. Water has always been a symbol of new beginnings (birth itself with the amniotic fluid and baptisms which take place in water) and when the sea gods rise from their watery depths to correct the excesses of humanity, a re-birth will have taken place for the world.

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