Peom explication

“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.

The poem titled “The World Is Too Much For Us” is a sonnet from the famous british writer William Wordsworth. This particular piece was published around Sept. 1802, during the romantic era. A sonnet is a poem “that includes two parts that together form a compact form of argument.”. (wikipedia.com) A sonnet like this one compacts the argument with an octave first, which is the issue at hand or problem, and the second part of the poem is the solution which is also called the sestet.   “Altogether this arrangement is called a iambic pentameter. An iambic pentameter explained the rhythm of a poem or sonnet. In this case it is a short syllable or line followed by a long syllable. An example is a-bout, a-bove, or be-long. The rhythm scheme of this specific poem goes “a-b-a-b, a-b-b-a, c-d-e-d, c-d.” (Wikipedia.com)  This poem explained the harmful truth of humanity and its relationship with the things that God gave us, such as nature. It tells how we as humans are absorbed into materialistic objects, and the unappreciation of the powers and things that God provides us with.

The title states Williams opinion on the issue at hand. “The World Is Too Much For Us.”  This states that mankind have been given this wonderful world, and yet does not handle the responsibility of keeping its integrity as God had intended.  For the bible says, Genesis 1:28-30 that he gave man all authority over all things, all creatures, land, and plants that produce”. As the reader reads the poem they will begin to see that William was in touch with his religion and spirituality.   

Moving on to the 1st stanza.  “The world is too much for us; late and soon”.  Here he is voicing his opinion.  William thinks we have destroyed the world both past, present, and even in the future.  “Getting and spending”, Tells the story of economics, “simple circular-flow model”.   People have revolved their lives around money and material possessions.  They wake up to work for wages, then they trade wages for goods, material objects.  Human nature see’s a person’s status as what nice things someone possesses. People envy people for the things that they buy.  The problem is that they are all so attached to this theory of life that they do not appreciate the natural things that given by God.  William explains this issue in the next three lines of the stanza. “We lay waste our powers” God has given humans powers and responsibilities.  In which they have thrown these things and their energy on worldly objects instead of using what they have been given in nature.  “Little we see in nature that is ours”.   We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.  The word “Sordid” means degrading, dirty, ignoble actions or motives.(Wikipedia.com”)  Where the word “Boon” means trade or benefit.”(Wikipedia.com) So together “sordid boon” is a oxymoron that William uses to explain how mankind are making a disgraceful or degrading trade between God’s given pleasures and material objects.

The next stanza uses words as metaphors to explain how the earth is reacting while mankind ignores the cries.  “This sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The wind that will be howling at all hours”.  William is trying to say that mother nature or the earth cries out to the God of the universe for help.  “And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune”.  William is using a metaphor saying that people are so blind from what God intended that they are like flowers not blooming to their full potential.  

 Those first few lines were the octave.  It told the issue at hand. The second part starts a way for William to resolve or deal with the issue.  “It moves us not, Great God”  Here is Williams cry for help.  He highlights “Great God” to show importance.  It moves us not is saying that people will not change and consequences are not thought of.  “I’d rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn.”  Here he choose to use words like Pegan, which is atheist, skeptics, or non believers.  Suckled, which means to be feed, like a baby on a nipple, Creed is a faith, christainality system,  set of beliefs that guide a person’s actions, and outworn, Which means out of date, dead, or obsolete.  So together he used these words to say that he would rather be a Pagan, have no true beliefs, and have his mind absent.  This would help him cope with the way the world has turned out. If he didn’t have faith or believed in God and his ideology then it would not bother him.  So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn”.  He wants to not know or understand so he can look upon the lea,(Meadow) and see beauty without being forlorn (sad, depressed) that the world is being demolished by mankind.  If only he could pretend to not care, or be numb to the truth then he wouldn’t be sad and afflicted by the way mankind has took what was given, and was God’s greatest creation and destroy it. ”Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”  Here is is still thinking that if he had a different belief.  Like non believers or even if he believed in Proteus and Triton, which are thought in some religions as God’s ofthe sea.  Then He could also be blind to the issue conceived from mankind. He knows that God has given his people everything, that also includes ability of choice and freedom.  So people make choices even if the consequences are devastating, God allows it. Where if William believed in sea gods then they would be in control of their elements such as the wind, and water.  That would be easy to believe that some sea gods could fix the issue at hand instead the writer knows that only man can help man change.

Works cited

https://www.wikipedia.org/
https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-world-is-too-much-with-us-summary-analysis.html#.XEKbC3bYrnE

W.H.Norton & Company, “The Norton Anthology Of English Literature: tenth edition page 358