Environmental Crisis Exposed in The World Is Too Much With Us and God's Grandeur

Environmental Crisis Exposed in The World Is Too Much With Us and God's Grandeur

In his poem, "The World Is Too Much With Us," William Wordsworth blames modern man of being too self-indulgent. Likewise, Gerard Manley Hopkins shows how the way we treat nature shows our loss of spirituality in his poem, "God's Grandeur." We are ruthless by lacking proper appreciation for, being separated from, and abusing nature.

Man lacks proper gratitude for nature. People often are blind to nature's great beauty. "It moves us not," says Wordsworth. Many people never see a sunrise or a sunset because we are too concerned with the hustle and bustle of our tiny worlds to appreciate the opulence around us. We don't recognize the creation that God has bestowed upon us. In his poem, Hopkins shows how the Earth is God's creation: "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." He asserts that God's work is still to be seen in nature. We don't always realize that we get all of our wealth from nature. We often forget that "little we see in nature is ours." Even our bodies are part of nature. In the Bible, it says that we were created from the dust of the Earth. Full appreciation is not always shown for the Earth, making us cruel to nature.

Many individuals are alienated from nature. They are separated from nature because of the deep transformation of the landscape. There are few natural things left in landscape. "The soil is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod." Hopkins uses this line to explain how out of touch man is with nature. We cannot even feel the ground under our feet because of the shoes we wear. Mankind also fears nature. We are afraid of "The winds that will...

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... We are separated from nature, we fear nature, and we mistreat animals. Man also abuses nature. We use nature to make money, we overuse nature, and we pollute nature. Mankind is tremendously callous to the environment. We must be sensitive to nature or the Earth will become like the world in H.G. Wells' novel, The Time Machine. It will be filled with frail Eloi. Underground there will be white, ape-like Morlocks. Giant crabs will roam beaches, and the only remnant of the world today will be artifacts kept in a Museum of Green Porcelain.

All should read Hopkins's poem, "God's Grandeur," and Wordworth's poem, The World Is Too Much With Us so everyone will realize the man's responsibility to nature. If we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy the quality of life we have today, environmental problems must be corrected now.