The Fear of Mortality (A response to Wordsworth’s poetry themes)

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William Wordsworth rejected all the traditional assumptions about the proper style, words, and subject matter for a poem during the Romanics period. When explaining his writing Wordsworth said, “There will be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetry diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it.” (Marshall) Because he took such a different approach to his writing, many people criticized his poems. Literary critic Harold Bloom said, “The fear of mortality haunts much of Wordsworth’s best poetry, especially in regard to the premature mortality of the Imagination and the loss of its creative joy.” Wordsworth does in fact express fear of mortality in the poems The World is too much with us, London, 1802, The Prelude, and Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
To begin, Wordsworth shows fear of mortality throughout the lines in the poem The World is too Much with Us. He explains that we continue to waste our lives by only being concerned with material things. Once we start caring more about money, we are lost! The speaker claims that our obsession with "getting and spending" has made us insensible to the beauties of nature. "Getting and spending" refers to the consumer culture accompanying the Industrial Revolution that was the devil incarnate for Wordsworth .(Shmoop Editorial Team) We lose our chances to do better and accomplish things when we give away our hearts because we become enthralled with love. Soon we become blind from what really matters in life and drift away from Nature. We take for granted the little things in life and become out of tune.
In addition, London, 1802 Wordsworth also expresses fear of mortality. To start off, he references Milton, ...

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...Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
Notari, Debbie. "London, 1802 by Wordsworth." Educational Portal. Educational-Portal, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
Phillips, Jonathan. "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey." GradeSaver.com. Grade Saver LLC, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
Rush, Tayna. "The Prelude: William Wordsworth - Summary and Critical Analysis." BachelorandMaster.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
Shmoop Editorial Team, ed. "The World is too Much with Us." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .

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