The World Is Too Much With Us

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, society has become obsessed with material belongings and in turn has lost touch with nature. During the Romantic period, most poets and artists tried to reconnect with nature, so it is no surprise that industrialism caused many grievances among them. One Romantic poet, William Wordsworth puts the theme of humanity’s loss of connection with nature and the spiritual world into words in his sonnet “The World Is Too Much With Us”. This theme is developed through the use of poetic form, imagery, and tone. Wordsworth’s use of a sonnet form for this particular poem is very fitting, because it sets up a problem and provides a solution or conclusion. The first four lines set up the problem the poet sees. In this case, the speaker of the poem proposes that we are too caught up in “Getting and spending” and subsequently “Little we see in Nature that
In this poem elements of nature are personified. For example, it tells of the sea that “bares her bosom to the moon” and the winds that “will be howling all night” (Wordsworth 5;6). By personifying these elements, Wordsworth has given them a personal feel, making them seem almost human. But sadly, society is “out of tune” with nature and therefore disconnected from the sea and the winds. The way that each aspect of nature is personified is “reminiscent of polytheistic religions that believe that there are separate gods for each aspect of nature” (Ramjattan). This further emphasizes the spiritual essence of nature, and the problem with losing touch with it. A further example of imagery in this poem can be found in the last two lines, where we see Proteus “rising from the sea” and Triton blowing his “wreathed horn” (Wordsworth 13;14). These images illustrate the beauty and complexity of nature and show the speaker’s yearning to reconnect with what we have lost due to the materialistic ways of the modern