The World Is Too Much With Us Romanticism

1542 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Consumerism in modern day society

Romanticism looks to express feelings through the use of emotions in the natural world. The emotions of William Wordsworth and William Blake are expressed through aesthetic experiences such as roses and rainbows. Romanticism harnesses the power of imagination and seeks to connect the power of imagination and creativity. William Wordsworth’s poetry expresses powerful feelings and comes from his imagination. In Wordsworth’s works, “The World Is Too Much With Us”, “My Heart Leaps Up”, and “It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free” he is able to freely express his feelings without making the context appear artificial. Wordsworth writes pieces as a mode of expression; in his writings it is clear to see that he is merely expressing how he feels …show more content…

Wordsworth’s work, “The World Is Too Much With Us”, protests that the world is too materialistic for us to appreciate it. People constantly put themselves under the pressure that they need more time and money. Being concerned about money and time leaves little space to appreciate the natural world. “The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers” tells readers that people are destroying themselves with materialistic desires (Lines 1-2). Wordsworth is trying to tell readers that there is an imbalance between society and the natural world. Humanity is too busy with the world to make time for the natural world. Wordsworth also believes humanity has sold their souls to consumerism. We have become so detached from nature that in order to find a place with few buildings, and shops we have to travel hours away. “Little we see in Nature that is ours;” indicates that nature is not valued highly because it is offered freely to everyone (Line 3). The poem is suggesting that consumerism has made people “out of tune” with nature. The poem shifts from alienation between humans and nature to what the reader wishes he was. “I’d rather be/ A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;” signifies that the reader would prefer to go back a thousand years and do things the way they were done in the past (Lines 9-10). He would prefer to have all the …show more content…

Prostitution can be a result of mistreatment from having to clean chimneys. The Harlot curses at the infant for crying instead of soothing him/her. The infant is born into a society where he/she cannot be loved. Similar to “A Sick Rose”, Blake refers to “Marriage hearse” at the end of “London” (Line 16). “Marriage hearse” is an oxymoron phrase because it combines death with life. The Harlot plagues marriages by engaging in prostitution. The end of the poem ties together Blake’s darker thoughts on human society. According to Blake, life in the city of “London” is diseased, restricted, and miserable.
William Blake’s “The Tyger” and William Wordsworth’s “It is a Beauteous evening, calm and free” each discuss a single, central idea not pertaining to darkness in human society. Both works discuss how the conventional idea of nature is a reflection of its creator. Both works also explore the idea that nature can be strikingly beautiful, while also being strikingly

Show More
Related

  • Symbolism In William Blake's 'The Tyger'

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both of the questions being asked by Blake in each stanza are congruent with the five worldview questions. The five worldview questions are as follows: Who is God?, Who am I?, What’s the problem?, What’s the solution?, and Where are we going?. Furthermore, throughout the entire poem, each stanza asks a worldview question. So when Blake asks certain questions about the Tiger such as “What the hand, dare seize the fire?” (Blake 1) he is actually asking the reader; moreover, each question questions the reader’s thinking of religion. This consequently ties in with the major theme of the poem which is

    Read More

  • Compare and contrast the three portrayals of London in Blake’s

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    I am a Clearly, Blake does not like London, and uses imagery to show this. With use of repetition, vivid images of the dirty, and miserable place. he sees are created. Wordsworth, however, has a very different approach to London. He sees it as the finest place on Earth, and that never before has he seen a. place that really is so beautiful as London.

    Read More

  • Real Romanticism

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    After the peaceful and productive Baroque era came the Rococo, and then the period of Romanticism and Realism. Art from this era was very similar to the Rococo period, save one element; the tumult of the French Revolution. The tension from this historical tragedy came out in many paintings, even though they were created twenty to thirty years after the end of the Revolution. Paintings such as Goya's Third of May (27-11) and Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People portray the terrible effects of mislead ideas. The rest of the world took after the humanistic thoughts injected into some of the art; the Revolution had been influential, but not good in a very good way.

    Read More

  • The Romanticism Period

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    History is the story and knowledge of the past. There are individuals that are interested by history and wish to study it by learning more. It is very informative to know what has happened in the past for self-knowledge. An individual cannot be naïve to the past including but not limited to how literature came to. One can understand literature more when they understand the time period the author wrote during and the way they wrote. There are several time periods different authors have been through with each period having specific beliefs. Romanticism is the time period that interests me the most; it was a time during the eighteenth century and focused on nature along with the individual’s expression of imagination and emotion.

    Read More

  • Literature and the Industrial Revolution

    349 Words  | 1 Pages

    London? and ? The Lamb? William Wordsworth, like Blake, was linked with Romanticism. In fact, he was one of the very founders of Romanticism. He wrote poems are about nature, freedom and emotion.

    Read More

  • Westminster Bridge and London

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Conversely, Wordsworth’s poem does use a greater number of poetic devices, making it more enjoyable to read and pleases me, unlike Blake’s poem which has a greater effect on me, this is because Blake’s effect on the reader is a negative effect as when I read the poem, I believe London is a bad place from his description, unlike Wordsworth’s, which makes London seen ‘fair’ and very attractive to people.

    Read More

  • Wordsworth’s Sonnets and Technology

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    In our society we hardly even appreciate nature compared to the society Wordsworth lived in. We depend on everyday technology to better ourselves, such as television that keeps us indoors and away from the natural world.

    Read More

  • Romanticism And Humanism

    1126 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thought, while never homogenous, has nevertheless constantly evolved. Philosophy, from Socrates and onward, has developed and built upon itself, and grow outward into more and more varied schools of thought. These schools have and continue to divide, change, and transform into new ideas, some of which have come to describe entire periods of human history and dominate the philosophical and popular culture of those times. Romanticism came about as a reaction to the Enlightenment, which itself was a reaction the ideas before it (though no borders are clearly defined between any movements). Modern philosophy, containing the likes of rationalists, empiricists, existentialists, and more, was of course inherently built upon the ideas and history of

    Read More

  • Romanticism

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).

    Read More

  • Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality

    390 Words  | 1 Pages

    This stanza is dominated by the Christian ideas of being made in God’s image. However, man does not remain in that image. His “birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,” and as his life progresses he moves farther and farther from the glorious ideal he had in childhood. Throughout much of his poetry, Wordsworth asserts that in childhood, one can “see” but is unaware of that ability, whereas in adulthood, one cannot see and is painfully aware of his situation. It is only through conscious thought and reflection that man can begin to find a state similar to his original one. The question, then, is why children, who take nature for granted, are given the opportunity to connect so closely with it. It would appear that the fact that children do not realize what they have is the very reason for their having it. Thus, the losing of that knowledge with age allows man to feel the loss, and forces him to find a solution, just as Wordsworth has done. In stanza ten, he tells the reader that the true essence of humanity is the ability to feel pain and have memories of better times. Through these painful or happy memories, man is able achieve the philosophical state of mind, and in the end to love nature “even more” than he did in youth.

    Read More

  • 18th and 19th century view on nature

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    Through the poems of Blake and Wordsworth, the meaning of nature expands far beyond the earlier century's definition of nature. "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." The passion and imagination portrayal manifest this period unquestionably, as the Romantic Era. Nature is a place of solace where the imagination is free to roam. Wordsworth contrasts the material world to the innocent beauty of nature that is easily forgotten, or overlooked due to our insensitivities by our complete devotion to the trivial world. “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath passed away a glory from the earth.

    Read More

  • William Wordsworth Research Paper

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    Judith Monarrez Professor Hanscom LIT 651 August 24, 2014 Romantic Revolutionaries: William Wordsworth and William Blake The Industrial Revolution was a big part of history and also had a big impact on Britain’s working class. While the Industrial Revolution may have made it easier for society, England’s underclasses were left devastated by the inability to support themselves after legislation converted common land into private land (Broadview, 8). The Romantic Movement flourished during this time and poets like William Wordsworth and William Blake wrote poetry to portray the issues happening around them.

    Read More

  • William Wordsworth's Use of Nature

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    In poetry the speaker describes his feelings of what he sees or feels. When Wordsworth wrote he would take everyday occurrences and then compare what was created by that event to man and its affect on him. Wordsworth loved nature for its own sake alone, and the presence of Nature gives beauty to his mind, again only for mind’s sake (Bloom 95). Nature was the teacher and inspirer of a strong and comprehensive love, a deep and purifying joy, and a high and uplifting thought to Wordsworth (Hudson 158). Wordsworth views everything as living. Everything in the world contributes to and sustains life nature in his view.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Romanticism

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    If you take glance at the 19th century you can see that there are many intellectual and political movements that take place. Romanticism played a huge role in the 19th and 20th centuries however, some may argue that Romanticism wasn’t as significant as it is said to be.

    Read More

  • The Role of Nature in the poetry of William Wordsworth

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The World Is Too Much With Us Romanticism

Open Document