Poem 4/16

The poem, ‘The World Is Too Much With Us’ by William Wordsworth, I have to say is another one of my favorite poems. The title itself caught my attention and intrigued me. The title made me question how and why the world is too much with us and what exactly does this mean. After reading the poem I immediately picked up of the theme and main idea/target. William Wordsworth expressed this distance humans have from the world in which we live. In the first three lines of the poem “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!", when read says almost subtly humans are too distracted and need a wake up call. The section in line one, "late and soon" much like line "little we see in Nature" to me say as humans we only notice, appreciate, and take heed in the world in which we live at younger ages ("soon", ages four to ten) skipping a large section of our lives until our older ages ("late", 70 and up). And in that large section that is 'skipped', little does the human eye see in nature. We get so distracted with other events we fail to realize how blessed we are to have a beautiful home (earth). This makes sense considering children enjoy the outdoors, using all their energy to run free and play. And with the elderly, ones energy is almost depleted leaving them to sit and watch the world around them 'pass by' in their remaining years because no one lives forever.

Lastly the beautiful imagery and figurative language in the poem appealed to me when reading, really touching my heart and making me think twice about it all. "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; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 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 glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.” you can imagine the moon glistening on the surface of the ocean along with the stars, and you can almost hear the howling of the wind throughout the day, for many years. Then the poem states, "for this, for everything, we are out of tune", again saying we are out of touch with mother earth, neglecting her our love. By the end the speaker states that they just want to appreciate the earth for what it provides, wishing they could "Have sight of Proteus rising from sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wretched horn".