The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth
In the churchyard of Grassmere’s Saint Oswald’s Church, lies a simple tombstone laid in reverence to William Wordsworth; now one of the most visited literary shrines in the world. “The World is Too Much With Us” is one of many excellent poems written by William Wordsworth during the early 1800’s. The poem’s theme revolves directly upon the material inclination of the world, and the tragic result of human kind losing sight of all things truly meaningful. When reading such texts based upon such controversial (and at that time) revolutionary ideals, especially when expressed in such remorse and disgust; one can begin to wonder on what authority the poet stands to address all humankind in such manner, diminishing practically all but himself. What right does he have, and what value should we place on his opinion? Oxford Dictionary defines the term ‘value’ as: ‘how useful or important something is’. Today renowned as a great poet, William Wordsworth biographically experienced more than his fair share of lows; including orphaned by the age of 13. Culturally he was exposed to one of the largest spread of Christianity & bore witness to the Industrial revolution. Considering the circumstances the poet has experienced gives more understanding to what influenced such ideals & writings. It seems all William Wordsworth had gained and more so lost; allowed him to see life in more perspective than what others did, resulting in essence a more prioritised life; these priorities of the correct manner. Reading poems with a context of biographical & cultural knowledge adds value to our view of the poet (Wordsworth), to their poems & to the ideals they represent in them.
William Wordsworth was born on the 7th April 1770 in a fine Georgian house in Cockermouth. In essence Wordsworth’s life began in the midst of luxury and riches. All was soon taken away when he lost his mother at the age of eight, and later on losing his father at the age of thirteen. Having no-one to attend to him he attended the Hawkshead Grammar school and lodged with whoever would take him in at varied times. Biographically, though Wordsworth may not clearly remember all, there would definitely have been a comparison of his rich life with that of his new ‘poor’ one. Wordsworth to an extent would have been able to see what was gained, and as well as what was lost in both types of life.
William Wordsworth is easily understood as a main author whom expresses the element of nature within his work. Wordsworth’s writings unravel the combination of the creation of beauty and sublime within the minds of man, as well as the receiver through naturalism. Wordsworth is known to be self-conscious of his immediate surroundings in the natural world, and to create his experience with it through imagination. It is common to point out Wordsworth speaking with, to, and for nature. Wordsworth had a strong sense of passion of finding ourselves as the individuals that we truly are through nature. Three poems which best agree with Wordsworth’s fascination with nature are: I Wandered as a Lonely Cloud, My Heart leaps up, and Composed upon Westminster Bridge. In I Wandered as a Lonely Cloud, Wordsworth claims that he would rather die than be without nature, because life isn’t life without it, and would be without the true happiness and pleasure nature brings to man. “So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me
"The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed" -Mahatma Gandhi. In the eighteenth century, people began to rapidly change the way one lives their life. The Industrial Revolution caused the environment to being less appreciated, which lead to the first environmentalist to form. People began to become stressed because society was rapidly growing, class structures changed. Thus, many felt life was dull. People of this time were unhappy, stressed, and cared about the superficiality of life. Many sought refuge in spiritual reform and introspection to find a moral compass. In the poems, “The World is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth and “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Hopkins Hopkins both explore the confusion of the Romantic
Wordsworth is plagued by societies inability to conform to his beliefs on nature, in “The World is Too Much With Us”. In the octave of the poem he states, “late and soon / Getting and spending, we lay waste to our powers (ll. 1-2)”. Wordsworth has given up hope, giving that society has “powers (l. 2)”, that are not being put into effect and most likely never will be. The focus of society has been drawn further away from nature and has been put on “getting and spending”, the self-centered acts of materialism. He states that is what has been happening and will continue to happen, “late and soon (l. 1)”. With the acts of spending, comes the ownership of the object that is being bought but that cannot be done in nature. A part of nature cannot be called one’s own, “Little we see in Nature that is ours (l. 3)”. Since no one can own any part of nature, it is of no interest to humanity. Nature should not exclusively be appreciated because of
Wordsworth shows the reader what he thinks his life is like and what he wants it to be
The World Is Too Much with Us, written by William Wordsworth in 1807 is a warning to his generation, that they are losing sight of what is truly important in this world: nature and God. To some, they are one in the same. As if lacking appreciation for the natural gifts of God is not sin enough, we add to it the insult of pride for our rape of His land. Wordsworth makes this poetic message immortal with his powerful and emotional words. Let us study his powerful style: 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! (Lines 1 - 4) Materialism, wasteful selfishness, prostitution! These are the images that these lines bring to me! Yet, is it not more true today than in Wordsworth’s time, that we are a culture of people who simply consume and waste?
Poetry is a very diverse form of writing. So many rhyming patterns, types of poems, and topics of poems exist in the world. This diversity allows a poet much freedom in the realm of writing poetry. A poet may prefer to write with or without distinct rhyming or meter. They may also choose how many and where they use different literary devices. In his poem “The World Is Too Much With Us”, William Wordsworth follows a strict form for a poem, uses many literary devices, and conveys a good message
Wordsworth truly emphasized the influence nature had on human morals and emotion. He spiritualised nature and regarded the environment as a philosophical moral teacher, as a mother and even guardian, as the one true elevating influence that was greater than any other. He believed that between man and Nature there is mutual consciousness and understanding, as well as a spiritual connection. According to him, human beings who grow up in the lap of Nature like he did were the ideal humans, the perfect kind. Above all, Wordsworth emphasized the moral influence of Nature as this pastoral influence. “They are second only to nature, which is "the breath of God." (Wordsworth 221). It was his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but nature in ordinary, familiar, everyday moods.Wordsworth stressed upon the moral influence of Nature and the need of man’s spiritual discourse with it “Great and benign, indeed, must be the power/ Of living nature,” (Wordsworth 167). He did not recognize the scary, hideous side of nature, only its
Cosgrove, Brian. “Review: Wordsworth, Reality, and the ‘Absolute Self’.” “Reviewed works: The Prose Works of William Wordsworth”. An Irish Quarterly Review, 64 (1975) 49-58. JSTOR. Web. 21 Mar. 2010
He and William Blake share many similarities between their writings such as the idea of the child and their pious ways. However, they differ in their upbringing. Wordsworth was from a higher social class than Blake which changes his view of children immensely. From a young age, Wordsworth was separated from his other siblings after the death of his parents. Instead of going straight into an apprenticeship like Blake, Wordsworth went to school with other children. His poetry shows the view from an upperclassman looking upon children. This brought about the idea of children and the “creed of childhood”, which was defined by his hatred of being an adult. In the eyes of Wordsworth, the worst stage of life was adulthood. Since there were more obligations and things to worry about, adulthood was viewed as a miserable time as seen in his poem “Ode: The Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”. Throughout his school days, Wordsworth would be outside running around and being free. This was the basis for many of his poems since he describes early childhood as a time to be deliberately free and one with God in
William Wordsworth is a British poet who is associated with the Romantic movement of the early 19th century. Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was seven years old, and he was an orphan at 13. This experience shapes much of his later work. Despite Wordsworth’s losses, he did well at Hawkshead Grammar School, where he firmly established his love of poetry. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his poetry.
In Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us” can be seen all the classic signs of the Romantic movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century well embodied, complete with a near-worship of nature (“Little we see in Nature that is ours…for this, for everything, we are out of tune”) that was perhaps an understandable reaction to not only the classicism of the prior era, but the sociopolitical realities of the day (such as the French Revolution), a sort of intellectualized version of the hippie movement of 1960s America. Clearly, Wordsworth here is taking a typically Romantic view of the social order and what remained acceptable norms even in religious view (“I’d rather be a Pagan…so might I…have glimpses that would make me less forlorn…”), and a kind of individual, internal, take on the acquisition of truth that echoed the ultra-romanticism of Wordsworth’s fellow Briton, William Blake, in his insistence that he create his own “systems” lest he “be ruled by another man’s.” Much of these ideas would appeal, at least in their simplest forms, to much of modern consciousness, rebelling as it does not only against conformity and convention, but the apparent subjugation of the individual by the increasingly dizzying swirl of corporate culture and technological globalization.
William Wordsworth was brought into this world on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland. His birth parents are John and Anne Wordsworth, who also had four children besides William. As a child, William would wander through the beautiful and natural scenery of Cumberland; these are the types of experiences that would deeply affect Wordsworth's imagination and give him a love of nature (Barker 23). At the age of eight, his mother passed away and this experience greatly affected him. Wordsworth soon attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his sincere enjoyment for poetry was entrenched in his heart, mind, and soul. He was also extremely fascinated by the legendary poet John Milton (Gill 78). At Hawkshead, Willi...
Durrant, Geoffrey. Wordsworth and the Great System, A Study of Wordsworth’s Poetic Universe. Cambridge: University Printing House, 1970.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.
William Wordsworth has respect and has great admiration for nature. This is quite evident in all three of his poems; the Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey and Michael in that, his philosophy on the divinity, immortality and innocence of humans are elucidated in his connection with nature. For Wordsworth, himself, nature has a spirit, a soul of its own, and to know is to experience nature with all of your senses. In all three of his poems there are many references to seeing, hearing and feeling his surroundings. He speaks of hills, the woods, the rivers and streams, and the fields. Wordsworth comprehends, in each of us, that there is a natural resemblance to ourselves and the background of nature.