The World is too much with us (William Wordsworth)
The World is too much with us (William Wordsworth)
Introduction to the Poem: This poem was composed in 1806. It is a sonnet. It was first published in 1807. It is written in Petrarchan or Italian form. The Industrial Revolution in England brought untold miseries to the working class. Wealth concentrated in a few hands. There was no love and sympathy among the people. This made Wordsworth despondent. He became very apprehensive about the future of his country. He vehemently protests against it in this sonnet.
Central idea of the poem: When man once loses touch with Nature, and has no eye or ear for beauty and grandeur, he ceases to have a spiritual life, and his religion becomes a sham. Better is the old Greek’s defection of the powers of Nature than the materialism of modern days. Better is a living faith in Pantheism than the dull formalism of the worldly Christian.
Moral of the poem : No religion can be vital that does not make Nature full of noble meaning for us. Better is the real faith in the beautiful through crude conceptions of Greek Pantheism, than bondage to the formula without the faith of a higher creed.
“The World is too much with us” is a sonnet typically Wordsworthian in tone and diction. It gives an interpretation of Wordsworth’s philosophy of Nature. The poet argues strongly in favour of paganism as a reaction against the unhealthy effects of modern civilization. The central idea of the poem is that man has become too much materialistic, almost blind to the beauties of Nature. The poet welcomes Paganism which will enable him to be responsive to Nature and make him less forlorn. Since materialism has taught man only to sacrifice even the best feelings for material gains it has made man miserable and unhappy.
There is no doubt that paganism is an antiquated creed. According to paganism there are gods and goddesses in all objects of Nature. Christianity is a more reasonable religious faith because it substitutes one God in place of many. But with the growth of materialism even Christianity has become a pretence. The old paganism of ancient Greeks is better than new Christianity, because it enables man to appreciate the beauties of Nature. Wordsworth love of Nature is the primary concern. So he would be ‘A pagan suckled in a creed outworn’.
Bradley has said that this sonnet is “the most famous expression in English of that longing for perished glory of ‘Greek myth’ which appears in Romantic poetry”. The description of the picture of “proteus rising from the sea” and that of “Triton blowing his wreathed horn” are artistic and graphic. They convince us of the fact that a pagan who believes in gods of Greek mythology can very well appreciate the beauties of Nature.
The poem is remarkable for its exposition of the poet’s attitude to Nature. The sonnet is an organic whole producing a singleness of effect. It is almost Miltonic in its austerity and grandeur. In respect of the expression of feelings, the poem is not as great as ‘Daffodils’ or ‘A Slumber did my spirit seal’. The poem is not born of a real profound experience of the poet’s life. It is born of a sense of disgust. There is an ethical preoccupation in the sonnet, an attempt on the part of the poet to introduce morality in poetry. Wordsworth is great only because virtue of his “Powerful feelings” and the “Spontaneous overflow”.
The sonnet lacks a spontaneity of expression and is therefore not as great as the earlier sonnets of Wordsworth.
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