The World Is Too Much With Us

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Recommended: William Wordsworth as a poet of nature

Nature is an extraordinary phenomenon that can put us in a state of awe no matter how it is expressed; from a single eloquent rain drop to a great flourishing forest Nature can have a wondrous hold on our attention. However, the hold is diminishing as our culture becomes more materialistic. This is not a recent occurrence as show by William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” . This sonnet was first published in 1807, but could have been write as early as 1802 ( Overview 1). During this period of time the Industrial Revolution was in its earliest stage of developing that caused an increase in the luxurious goods consumers could purchase and a materialism mindset also increased. Wordsworth expresses “a concern with nature” and “ the …show more content…

The “world” that is mentioned is a symbol for the world of consumerism. This gives us the initial idea that materialism has become of evident importance to the culture that Wordsworth lives in. The second line confirms this idea of “getting and spending” that has made money the “universal god of worship”(Jones 1). We no longer pay attention to nature and “have given our hearts away” as Wordsworth expresses in line four. “The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon” in line five is a metaphor for a person or nature exposing themselves and it having no effect on us whatsoever expanding Wordsworth theme of a broken bond with nature. Wordsworth is stating “that nothing in nature makes any impression on people anymore, not the sea under the moon nor the fierce winds that are “now like sleeping flowers” mentioned in line seven (Overview 1). Line eight contain the two literary devices of synecdoche and metaphor. The first part of line eight “for this, for everything”, “everything” is a symbol for nature, the wind, the sea, and etc.. In the next part of line eight is a metaphor in which “out of tune” is a comparison between a instrument and our hearts, a symbol for our emotion, are no longer one with nature . “It moves us not” in line nine, the word “moves” is a metaphor for nature making us register an emotion response from it. Wordsworth uses allusion to send us back to pagan times where nature was the primary aspect of life

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