“The World is Too Much With Us” is a Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet condemning our modern society for its obsession with materialism and its lack of appreciation for the nature. William Wordsworth incorporates a plethora of allusions to the Greek Mythology in order to juxtapose our sad state of society with the love of nature that the Greeks displayed. Wordsworth is clearly disconcerted with the materialistic culture of the 19th century and shows his passionate feelings for the natural world in this poem.
The poem begins with the speaker condemning the current society’s habits of “getting and spending” on material items. The speaker believes that material items have become too important in people’s lives. The title of the poem, “The World is Too Much With Us," refers to human beings too concerned with material items, allowing them become an overly significant part of the world. The speaker also displays his belief that our obsession with material things forces us to “waste our powers.” By being concerned with material items, people throw away their potential to do great things that actually have significance in the world. Furthermore, the speaker points out that our materialism blinds us to the beauty and importance of nature. Because people are overly concerned with material items, they fail to see the benefits that nature has to offer. The speaker is angry at society for ignoring the beauty of nature in favor of living for material items. The people of society have given their hearts to materialism instead of nature. The material world has set a blockade between humans and nature.
The speaker next goes on to personify the sea in order to display the beauty that nature has to offer. I believe the speaker is standing in front of a moonlit body of water as he is speaking the exquisite words of this poem. In describing the “Sea that bares her bosom to the moon”, the speaker means the sea is reflecting the moon. “Bosom” is the key word in this line because it connotates the image of mother nature sustaining the world. In this sense, the sea is mother nature and is nurturing the natural world, including the moon. This image brings the connotation that nature has a healing and nurturing power like a mother that humans are missing out upon. Also in this scene, the winds have stopped and are now “like sleeping flowers.” This image of a peaceful, calm sea with the healing powers of a mother is what humans are missing out on due to our obsession with the material world. Because of this, we are like a trumpet that is “out of tune.”
The speaker is so fed up with the lack of appreciation for nature that current society feels, he explains that he would rather be nurtured by Paganism because a Pagan would see aliveness and power at the sea scene he is at. The Pagan religion has a plethora of gods and mythology stories related to nature. The speaker believes that having gods related to nature shows that the Pagans had a true appreciation for the natural world. Being a Pagan, therefore, would make the speaker have a deeper relationship with nature because of the gods associated with it. He would feel less lost in this materialistic world if he has the comfort of the nature gods of the Pagans. For those of you who need a brushing up of your Greek mythology, Proteus was an early sea god and son of Poseidon who is able to change form when need be. Triton is another Greek god and son of Poseidon. Like Derek Zoolander, Triton is sometimes represented as a merman. The “wreathed horn” refers to the conch shell which Triton use to make musical noise from. The speaker wishes experience these Pagan ideas because he believes they represent the deep relationship that Pagans have with nature. This deep relationship with nature is what the speaker truly longs for. The speaker would rather be a Pagan than be a member of modern society who is too concerned with material items to have a true relationship with nature.
By means of extensive allusions to Greek mythology, Wordsworth effectively contrasts the Pagan connection to nature with modern society’s distance from the natural world. The materialistic outburst of the 19th century may have cast a dark shadow on society as a whole, but it did inspire the beautiful poetry of “The World is Too Much With Us.” (743)
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