The sonnet, "The world is too much with us," written by William Woodsworth argues that the modern people have lost their connection to nature and all that is meaningful.
At the start of the poem (lines 1-2), Woodsworth opens with the complaint that will generally carry throughout the whole piece. This complaint is that society is destroying themselves with consumerism "Getting and spending", and that we are wasting our time and putting burden on the world.
His point is furthered in lines 3-4, "Little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" These two lines were the most powerful to me in that I took it as the poems direct call out. He is calling people out on the self-made division generated between humanity and nature. In saying that "We have given our hearts away", he is saying we have lost sight of what is truly important. We have become so wrapped up in materialistic things and have abandoned the significance of all that is true and authentic. At this, I couldn't help but take a minute to think about how valid his argument really was. I have fallen victim to his argument as have so many of my peers. Growing up in the "digital age" if you will, has definitely taken a toll on how I view nature and how I relate to nature and all that is real. I have lost appreciation for some of the little things.
Lines 5-8 further Woodsworth's argument as he draws specific examples of nature and how we have become to susceptible to it's beauty. Society is in fact "out of tune" as he puts it in line 8. No longer are we influenced by the "sea" or the "winds" (as he references).
The turn of the poem came at line 9 because he finally suggests a plan of action. He makes an appeal to God and says he'd rather be Pagan (who at the time of publication followed a rather odd set of beliefs) than be someone who is so far removed from reality (as offered by nature). He continues on in lines 11-12 that if we were Pagan he could look at the land and he wouldn't feel as "forlorn"--thus this seems like a solution to the problem, (sort of?) In the last lines of the poem, 13-14, he gives specific examples into the "glimpses"that would make him feel less alone.
Overall, I felt the poem offered an interesting lesson: despite the advances that we as a society are being hit with, we must take a moment to realize that natural beauty and resources that the world has to offer. We must not become so wrapped up in the ideas of consumerism and must consider what is actually important.
Your interpretation of "We have given our hearts away" was definitely on point with my thought process. I understood this as well to mean that we have given our hearts away to material things that we can "get and spend" on, and have lost all appreciation and connection with nature. I interpreted the lines "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" as how we are no longer moved or in tune with the seasons and the plants, and how nature shows us time without a clock. Unlike our ancestors or for instance farmers, we do not use the sun and moon, the tides, etc. to tell the time. We are too caught up in our lives, too much caught up with how the world is now. Also "it moves us not" made me again think that we are not moved by nature. It does not give us emotions as it should, like Wordsworth brings up in "Lines", the other poem. We get caught up in the rush of the busy world around us, and we never just stop and let ourselves be moved with the beauty around us. I think the reason why Wordsworth brought up being Pagan is because Pagans worship nature, and believe they are equal to and not above nature. In the world of this time Wordsworth must have felt that we saw ourselves as above nature, and saw it as something not useful for us in our "getting and spending". The Gods are also brought up because Pagans worship Gods and Goddesses as well.
ReplyDeleteAt first, when I read the title of this poem, I thought Woodsworth meant to suggest that humans shouldn't be on the Earth at all, in order for it to survive. My friends and I, all environmentalists, often joke about this, but we don't actually want the human race to die. What we want is for the human race to belong again, to see that we're inextricably connected to our world. I think this is also what Woodsworth wants. Neat to see that people were concerned with consumerism even back in the 18th century! Neat...and a little scary. I guess the Industrial Revolution really shook things up.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is one of my fav's. I think a lot of people can really learn a lesson from it. I think the first line in the poem, "The world is too much with us: late and soon," sums up Wordsworth's entire argument. All of the material objects in the world overwhelm us and distract us. It does not allow us to see what is truly important. (I like that Wordsworth includes himself in this.) The words "late and soon" mean that we as people are always concerned with what has happened or what is going to happen--we are never present or in the moment. We don't allow ourselves to exist in the now. We get taken over by what needs to be done and what has happened, and are unable to live in the moment. This is what Wordsworth wants for people. He wants us to be able to pause--take a step back from the fast forward motion of our lives-- and enjoy and revel in the present. He also makes it evident that he want us to do this through a connection with nature. We are "out of tune" from all of the different natural element that should move us, but that "move us not." We exist on a different plane and unfortunately are unable to make the connection because we have diverged so much and become part of a different world from nature. Wordsworth urges us to reconnect with nature as a way to become more present in life.
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