William Wordsworth's
"The World is Too Much with Us": Analysis

A BESTWORD ANALYSIS

William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” (1807) is a sonnet that speaks to the discontent that many readers feel with the materialistic precedence of contemporary society.  Within “The World is Too Much with Us”, Wordsworth expresses his romantic belief that every facet of life in modern civilization pulls us further and further from our true nature as human beings and pushes us towards an unnatural state of civilized existence where we are estranged from our roots as natural beings.  Wordsworth’s romantic view is that we, as parts of the natural world, used to live free and spiritually fulfilling lives when we were pre-Christian Pagans, living in the bosom of the forest and praying to ancient gods of the elements.  It is for this that Wordsworth could be argued as being well ahead of his time, Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” having a message as powerful and true today as when Wordsworth first wrote it over two hundred years ago.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was a Romantic poet and a significant creative force engendering much of the 19th centuries’ Romantic Age of Literature.  An original poet for many different artistic virtues, Wordsworth’s personality and conscience made him the perfect father for a literary movement that would resound philosophically to this day.  Romanticism, defined by it predisposition towards nature and its deep emotional connection to the feelings of the poet, philosophically finds itself represented perfectly by Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us”.  By capturing the spiritual dissatisfaction many of us can feel when fulfilling our roles as proverbial cogs in the great social machine we live in, and painting in rhyme a romantic collage of a fantastic pagan past, Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” can be easily argued as one of Wordsworth’s most popular works of Romanticism. 

Another poetic revolution, for the sake of any reader who wished to appreciate his works, was William Wordsworth’s acceptance of all forms of readership and choosing to write in very plain English the poems that he intended for mainstream circulation.  Wordsworth’s writing was a movement away from those of his peers who wrote specifically for educated aristocrats and intellectual elites.  Instead, Wordsworth wrote for the average Englishman. His language and vocabulary was very plainly spoken and, while the actual themes may themselves be significantly deeper, much of his poetry can be appreciated for its imagery and the emotions they evoke alone.  William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1804) is a perfect example of Wordsworth’s inclusive style of literary consumption: through its use of imagery and romantic expression, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” came to be known affectionately as “Daffodils” for no other reason than much of its readership appreciated it for its vibrant imagery of daffodils dancing in a shore breeze.  It would be this literary inclusiveness and popular consumption that would make Wordsworth’s poetry so widely recited, even today. (William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” or “Daffodils”: Analysis)

The very theme of Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” is a concept that many grass roots, 19th century English people could relate to.  The popular dissatisfaction with the status quo (which consisted of wealthy landowners supporting their luxurious lifestyle on the labor of those who worked beneath them in the abysmal drudgery of Europe’s Industrial Revolution), made the message of Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” something they could easily find virtue in.  Wordsworth’s readers could relate to a fantasy of returning to nature and a mystical life in its care, appreciating the romantic philosophy of seeking an existence as close to nature and as far removed from the strains of civilization as possible.  It is within this philosophical view that Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” comes to be fully appreciated.

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

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!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;       5
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;                     10
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 wreathed horn.   

                                        William Wordsworth, 1807

The virtue of William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” is found in its romantic imagery of a fantastic ancient lifestyle that has, according to Wordsworth, become lost to us through our civilization.  Wordsworth draws the reader into a world where the elements and forces of nature have sensual personalities and mighty gods commanding them, animating them to give his Romantic appeal the passionate grandiosity that seems to be a cornerstone of the poetical assertion we find in “The World is Too Much with Us”.  Wordsworth describes how our spiritual lives were once robust and wonderful, and even though we didn’t have the comforts of then 19th century civilization, it was through this freedom that humanity found the spiritual meaning that we had become detached from, and continue to be detached from today.  It is this ‘natural state’ that Wordsworth longs for, and imagines returning to.  In his poem, “The World is Too Much with Us,” Wordsworth describes how civilized life has disconnected us from both the natural world and our innate spirituality.

William Wordsworth illustrates in “The World is Too Much with Us” how, in the early 19th century, mankind is plagued by materialism and the monotonies of wasted time in capitalistic pursuits.  Wordsworth describes us as “lay(ing) waste to our powers” (2) and being so far removed from our roots that “Little we see in Nature that is ours” (3).  Wordsworth exposes us as once being spiritual creatures with a place in nature, but through our modern day delusions “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (4). In “The World is Too Much with Us” Wordsworth describes how we have ceased to be the divine vessels we once were when we worshiped nature.  Humanity, in essence, has become, to William Wordsworth, a spiritual shell who slaves towards empty and shallow ends. 

The following lines of William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” are emotionally powerful images of vivacious and uninhibited wild nature pouring their hearts into their passions: “(the) Sea that bares her bosom to the moon” (5) and “the winds that will be howling at all hours” (6).  William Wordsworth, in a sort of fantasy that many, even today, dream of returning to, describes how he wishes he had been raised a Pagan of an ancient religion, “suckled in a creed outworn” (10), where he could be a part of that magical world, glimpsing from a vast field the sea gods rising from the ocean; “(to) Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; / Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (13-14).

Though written in the 19th century, William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” bears a message as meaningful today as it was two hundred years ago.  The theme of the poem is so similar to the naturalist’s philosophy of today that it is amazing that this is actually something written over two hundred years ago.  To a modern reader, it is almost impossible to think that William Wordsworth, a poet from the eighteen-hundreds, could actually be thinking in a way that was considered radically progressive less than half a century ago.  In many ways, it is a common bond that the spiritually restless can share in their hopes for a life outside of modern society.  Unfortunately, it also shows just how much further mankind has fallen from the natural grace they once possessed, and how unlikely it is that they will ever return.

William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” is an incredibly romantic sonnet.  Through its passionate imagery and primal message, Wordsworth reaches across centuries to touch the imagination and latent dreams of readers even today.  It is amazing to think that the human longing to return to a simpler, more spiritual fulfilling time could actually be so universal.  It is for this reason that Wordsworth’s prose could be whispered on the lips of naturalists today just as easily as they could be sung for the centuries to come.

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Analysis of “The World is too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth: Wordsworth at a Glance

Jordan Dickie,
 
Your analysis of "The World is Too Much With Us" is impressive. I am exceedingly fond of how you portrayed Wordsworth's verbiage to be fantastically romantic while also exhibiting very spiritual views. This intelligent conclusion takes much time and reasoning.

However, at first glance, this poem does not seem like much. What were your views and ideas about this poem when you first read its words?
 
Sincerely,
Liz Burdeau

Firstly, Liz, thank you very much for your kind email and excellent question.  The poem “The World is Too Much with Us”, much like the majority of William Wordsworth’s poems, has a deceptively simple appearance that makes it easy to overlook its underlying philosophy and message.  It is for this artistic virtue that I absolutely agree with you when you state ‘at first glance, this poem does not seem like much’; Wordsworth just has such a way with the language, and pulls us so deeply into such emotionally primal imagery, that I, myself, even forget to appreciate the romantic philosophy that so dramatically inspired many of his poems – a failure to see the shore for the “Daffodils”, shall we say.

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

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!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;       5
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;                     10
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 wreathed horn.   

                                        William Wordsworth, 1807

The first four lines of Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” hold particular power, and give significant insight into the message Wordsworth is attempting to communicate: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste to our powers: / Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (“Sordid boon” meaning a filthy or vile payment; an endowment of our hearts – or our very souls – in exchange for materialistic pursuits and a so-called ‘civilized’ existence).  Wordsworth describes how we make our world “too much” for a healthy, spiritually fulfilling life, filling our days with the emotionally devastating subsistence that has defined our societies since the same industrial revolution that would have reached its bleakest peak around the same time Wordsworth wrote “The World is Too Much with Us”.  Wordsworth describes how we overwhelm ourselves with being “late and soon” with our frantic schedules; “getting and spending” our resources on manufactured and emotionally hollow needs; and, finally, how we “lay waste to our powers”: squandering our time, our energy, our artistry, our philosophical and spiritual proliferation in the name of progress and production – committing spiritual felo-de-se; having never known the lives we unwittingly destroy.  Wordsworth’s argument continues to describe how, because of this bitter-sweet exchange of innocence for industrialization there is “little we see in nature that is ours” anymore; we are so estranged from our natural origins that nature is no longer a mother, nor a home, but an opponent to be conquered, a wild element to be tamed in the proverbial struggle of ‘man vs. nature’ and, in doing so, “have given our hearts away” in a “sordid boon” for which man has been suffering the humanitarian and spiritual consequences  even to this day.

In the lines that follow Wordsworth captures the romantic and fantastical imagery of passionate, sexually vivacious elements as they lust, rage, and pacify in their divine self-actualization, and how we, in our natural estrangement, fail to see the celestial animations acting all around us: “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.”  Wordsworth’s depiction of the Sea, the Moon, and the Winds are so primal, and so wild, that it is difficult for the reader to not feel some loss in the sin of contemporary society’s estrangement; how “for this, for everything, we are out of tune”; how we have shut ourselves off from a fantastic natural world that was once inherently ours, and now, in our self-righteous ignorance, detached ourselves from our very spiritual origins.  We are, through our civilization, spiritually deadened to the fantasy and wonder that once surrounded us; “it moves us not.”

In the final lines of “The World is Too Much with Us”, Wordsworth avidly proclaims how he would have rather been born into some ancient pre-Christian creed, where, mercifully ignorant of civilization, he would have lived in a fantastical world inhabited by forgotten Pagan deities whose only pantheons were to be found in the forests, the waves of the sea, and the constellations of the stars:

                     ... – Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;                     10
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 wreathed horn.   

It is in these lines that many readers may feel a special connection with William Wordsworth and his poem, “The World is Too Much with Us”.  It is my belief that there is rarely an individual who does not, at some point in their lives, fantasize with the idea of retreating to the “bosom of nature” where they can escape the emotional strain of society and exist, once again, as children living innocently within nature, free of the spiritual void so characteristic of modern civilization.  It is this fantastical retreat that many readers will share in common with Wordsworth when he describes how, in his escape from civilization he might stand “…on [a] pleasant lea, / [and] have glimpses that would make [him] less forlorn”.  Standing in a grassy field of tranquility, Wordsworth will witness the divine sights that will save him from the emotional vexation and spiritual disquietude that plague those who are dissatisfied by the hollow race of contemporary society.  Wordsworth, once again, plays mouthpiece to the angst experienced by the emotionally deep, the spiritually tormented - those seeking more from their lives than industry, progress, and financial gain.

At first glance, “The World is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth can seem like the naive fantasy of an impoverished romantic, his effortless language describing in simple words the emotions that are so common to us all, and yet unappreciated because of their universality.  But, at its heart, “The World is Too Much with Us” is a timeless message from one romantic to over two hundred years of readership; the message that mankind was meant for more than civilization, and it is through our civilization that we have not only lost touch with who we really are as human beings, but what it ultimately means to be human.

Written by Jordan Dickie
CEO, Executive Editor
BestWord SEO Copywriting Services
jordandickie@bestword.ca

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