Critical Analysis: 'The World Is Too Much With Us' By,

William Wordsworth
Introduction of the poet
William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and died in 1850 in the United Kingdom.
Undoubtedly Wordsworth was a central as well as commanding figure of English
Romantic Period (1800-1850). He is regarded as the poet of nature. Wordsworth is
best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The
Prelude, a Romantic epic poem chronicling the “growth of a poet’s mind.”

Background of the poem

In it, Wordsworth criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being
absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. Here the poet laments at
humankind on the loss of nature. People are busy in accumulating wealth and
spending it. We have a very short time to see the beauty of nature.

Setting

The last two lines vividly showed that the poet is seeing the sea beach. There is
beautiful scenery of grassland as well.

Composition of poem

'The World Is Too Much With Us' is a sonnet. A sonnet can be divided into two
parts.

1. Octave

The first eight lines which are iambic pentameter in nature are called the octave. In
the octave, there are arguments, questions, and dilemmas put forth by the poet. It
has ABBA, ABBA rhyming scheme.

2. Sestet

The next six lines are called the sestet, which is comprised of answers and
resolution. It has CDCD, CD rhyming scheme.
Note: This is the composition of the Italian sonnet, or closely referred to a
Petrarchan sonnet.

Literary Devices

There is a lot of figure of speeches are used in this poem.

Personification, Simile, Imagery, allusions, assonance, and enjambment are

common examples.

Quotations

These lines can be used as a quotation.

“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.”

Line-by-Line Explanation

First Quatrain (1-4)

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.

The title is twisted and it gives us many meanings. The poet opens with a
complaint. People are destroying themselves in accumulating the money and
spending it. The world is too much with us refers to the population of the world
and it creates a problem in future. Its meaning may be the life of the city versus
pastoral. "Late and soon" is a strange phrase. It could mean "sooner or later," or it
could mean we've done this recently or in the past and will do it in the future as
well. We have given our hearts to the materialistic world. We lost the ability to
feel, because we've given our hearts away. In short in the first quatrain, the poet
ironically satirizes the industrial world.
Second Quatrain (5-8)

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The wind that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune.

The second quatrain is again of a complaint in nature. This sea reflects the light of
the moon on its surface. Winds are running all the time peacefully and sometimes
aggressively, it's like flowers whose petals are folded up in the cold. We have
nothing to do with nature which is beautiful and pleasant. That's why those cruces
and rhythms have no impact on our lives.

Note the feminine approach as the poem progresses - the bare bosom, the moon,
sleeping flower - symbols of the Mother and the emotions.

Third Quatrain (9-12)

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 glimpse that would make me less forlorn.

The third quatrain opens with the personal opinions and wishes of the poet. The
poet wished that he were born in paganism religion that worshipped many gods, or
the people who have no religion at all. The poet continued his wishes and stated
that he might be able to see this green land and image of oceans in front of him
which calmed his heart. The mention of God (Great God!) suggests that
Wordsworth thought Christianity powerless to stop the tide of materialism.
Lines (13-14)

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

In the last lines of the third quatrain, the poet wishes to see something which is the
Greek God of the sea. The poet wants to see him in front of his eyes, or hear anther
Greek god Triton blow his legendary, grooved shell. Wordsworth must have been
aware of the unstoppable growth of industry and mass production. Like Blake, his
concern was for the future spiritual state of the people.

Theme

The major themes in this poem are loss of nature or the human instinct toward
nature. The poem is a satire on the materialistic as well as the industrial world.

Note: Industrial Revolution in England observed during 1780-1840.