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Post: A reading of Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us"
Posted by: L. Swilley on 10/21/09
This poem expresses regret that our excessive worldly
interests have blinded us to the nobler images of ourselves
to be found in Nature.
The argument of the poem is in three parts: part one,
lines 1-5, is a description of our frantic worldy life and
its opposition to a simpler and nobler existence to be
achieved by comtemplating our image in Nature; part two,
lines 5-9, gives examples of human images in nature to
which we are blind. In part three, lines 9-14, the
narrator says he would rather be an ancient pagan, for
they, at least, had a proper appreciation of Nature which
we so sadly lack.
The depth of our worldliness is emphasized by "Late
and soon, getting and spending," that is late getting but
soon spending - we spend *before* we get (very like our
current credit-card practices.)
To establish the contrast between our excessive
worldly interests and a healthier interest in Nature, the
sonnet uses two references that focus on the human breast:
in our worldly way, we "give our hearts away,' and this is
a "sordid boon," a poor gift; but the world of Nature which
we are asked to consider is pictured as a healthier, nobler
kind of giving, a mother breast-feeding her child ("The sea
that bares her bosom...the winds that would be howling at
all hours...up-gathered now like sleeping flowers...").
By implication another contrast is made in the third
part of the poem (lines 9-14). Here, the narrator says
that he would "rather be a Pagan," for pagans not only saw
themselves in nature, but saw their noble, god-like images
there (Proteus, Triton); whereas we worldly generation have
lost that, even though, as the poem implies ("I'd rather be
a Pagan...), we are Christians. (And perhaps the image of
the mother and child earlier anticipates this inference by
suggesting Mary and her Infant Son).
Ironically, and much to our discredit, our
Christianity sould call us to the images of love in Nature
to which the poem draws our attention; but although we
profess to be Christians, and therefore unworldly, we are
in fact un-Christian and very worldly indeed. The pagans
were apparently more "Christian" than we are.
L. Swilley
Posts on this thread, including this one
- A reading of Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us", 10/21/09, by L. Swilley .
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