Critical Analysis: 'The World Is Too Much With Us' By, William Wordsworth

Introduction of the Poet

William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and died in 1850 in the United Kingdom. Undoubtedly Wordsworth was a central as well as commanding figure of the English Romantic Period (1800-1850). He is regarded as the poet of nature. Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic poem chronicling the “growth of a poet’s mind.”

Background of the Poem

 In it, Wordsworth criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. Here the poet laments at humankind on the loss of nature. People are busy accumulating wealth and spending it. We have a very short time to see the beauty of nature.

Setting

The last two lines vividly showed that the poet is seeing the sea beach. There is the beautiful scenery of grassland as well.

Composition of poem

'The World Is Too Much With Us' is a sonnet. A sonnet can be divided into two parts.

1. Octave

The first eight lines which are iambic pentameter in nature are called the octave. In the octave, there are arguments, questions, and dilemmas put forth by the poet. It has ABBA, ABBA rhyming scheme.

2. Sestet

The next six lines are called the sestet, which is comprised of answers and resolution. It has CDCD, CD rhyming scheme.

Note: This is the composition of the Italian sonnet, or closely referred to as a Petrarchan sonnet.

Literary Devices

There is a lot of figures of speeches are used in this poem.

Personification, Simile, Imagery, allusions, assonance, and enjambment are common examples.

Quotations

These lines can be used as a quotation.

“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.”

Line-by-Line Explanation

First Quatrain (1-4)

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.

Explanation

The title is twisted and it gives us many meanings. The poet opens with a complaint. People are destroying themselves by accumulating the money and spending it. The world is too much with us refers to the population of the world and it creates a problem in the future. Its meaning may be the life of the city versus pastoral. "Late and soon" is a strange phrase. It could mean "sooner or later," or it could mean we've done this recently or in the past and will do it in the future as well. We have given our hearts to the materialistic world. We lost the ability to feel because we've given our hearts away.

In short in the first quatrain, the poet ironically satirizes the industrial world.

Second Quatrain (5-8)

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The wind that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune.

Explanation

The second quatrain is again of a complaint in nature. This sea reflects the light of the moon on its surface. Winds are running all the time peacefully and sometimes aggressively, it's like flowers whose petals are folded up in the cold. We have nothing to do with nature which is beautiful and pleasant. That's why those cruces and rhythms have no impact on our lives.

Note the feminine approach as the poem progresses - the bare bosom, the moon, sleeping flower - symbols of the Mother and the emotions.

Third Quatrain (9-12)

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 a glimpse that would make me less forlorn.

Explanation

The third quatrain opens with the personal opinions and wishes of the poet. The poet wished that he was born in a paganism religion that worshipped many gods, or the people who have no religion at all. The poet continued his wishes and stated that he might be able to see this green land and the image of oceans in front of him which calmed his heart. The mention of God (Great God!) suggests that Wordsworth thought Christianity is powerless to stop the tide of materialism.

Lines (13-14)

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Explanation

In the last lines of the third quatrain, the poet wishes to see something which is the Greek God of the sea. The poet wants to see him in front of his eyes, or hear another Greek god Triton blow his legendary, grooved shell. Wordsworth must have been aware of the unstoppable growth of industry and mass production. Like Blake, his concern was for the future spiritual state of the people.

Theme

The major themes in this poem are loss of nature or the human instinct toward nature. The poem is a satire on the materialistic as well as the industrial world.

Interesting Thing!

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