Love of Nature

The World Is Too Much With Us--Wordsworth

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;

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.

     Even though we looked at this poem in the very beginning of class, Wordsworth has had a real way of sticking with me throughout the whole Romantic period we've studied. He definitely became my favorite Romantic poet that we examined (although each one--Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats--is very interesting for their own individual reasons!), and I think that many of the topics Wordsworth focused his poetry around are still relevant today. I guess that is what I wanted to focus this blog around: the themes in this sonnet that still speak so strongly to me today. 

 

     One of the greatest things about literature (being an English Lit major, I'm pretty nerdy about it) is the way it continues to speak to readers even centuries after it was written. In my opinion, that is one of the things that makes a certain book or poem great literature, whether it can transcend time and still be meaningful in different contexts than it was created. I don't think Wordsworth will ever go out of style because Nature (I'm being Wordsworthian and capitalizing it!) is so enduring and constant.   

     In this sonnet, I saw there being themes about not only Nature, but also materialism, our consumer society, and a loss of connection with the world in general. Just listing them all makes me realize how even more pertinent these ideas are to our society today than they were in Wordsworth's time. We live in a time when "getting and spending" (2) is the most important thing, and most people don't even realize how much they're giving up--family time, seeing the world, or happiness in general--in order to keep up and get ahead in the capitalistic society of America. A quote from the Dalai Lama comes to mind regarding this subject. When asked what surprises him most about life he said, "Man.  Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." What an accurate description of the life most Americans are living today.

     Wordsworth, I think, sees a deep connection between the human soul and the soul of Nature. We are meant to go together, hand in hand, and being obsessed with money and "stuff" gets in the way of this horribly. A love of Nature and a love of material goods just do not go together. I'm reminded of the Native Americans who had an intimate relationship with Nature and lived completely off the land. They were able to appreciate Her beauty and goodness, move around wherever they wanted because they were not drowning in "stuff", and I believe that they lived healthier and happier lives than we are able to now. "We have given our hearts away" (4) in America today, and I think this disconnect from Nature is hurting us greatly. It's difficult though because the more materialistic we become, the more we stay indoors and sit in the house all day. But the more we become disconnected from Nature, the more material goods we believe we need to be happy. It's a vicious circle.

     I think Wordsworth sums it up best when he simply states, "...we are out of tune" (8). I have to remind myself constantly to not get caught up in the materialism of the world, especially when I am so lucky to live in this beautiful place. I like to believe that if Wordsworth lived today, we would be great friends and kindred spirits. His love and reverence for Nature is truly inspiring to me, and I think his words resonate strongly in the backwards-thinking society we live in today.

Extra Credit Wordsworth Sonnet

"Composed Upon Westminster Bridge"


Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

 Analysis--

This is another Wordsworth sonnet, and it really spoke to me because I felt like it differed from the other poetry by him we have read in class. This sonnet uses iambic pentameter and has the rhyme scheme ABCAABBA CDCDCD. Like other Wordsworth sonnets, the focus of this poem is nature. The setting is Wordsworth looking at the scenery around him (presumably from Westminster Bridge, hence the title), and feeling elevated and calm gazing around him. The octave is one idea, while the sestet is a separate but related idea. The speaker of the poem starts by expressing the beauty of the earth and states that the person who could pass by such a sight has a dull soul. This was probably my favorite line of the whole poem. It spoke to me because it insinuates that it takes a certain kind of soul to appreciate the beauty of nature, which I agree with. The next part is also beautiful because Wordsworth uses a metaphor to describe the city: "This City now doth like a garment wear/The beauty of the morning" (4-5). This created a beautiful image for me: a city landscape draped in the sunshine as if it was wearing it. He has already set up such a calming poem in those early lines.

Where the sonnet is different in my opinion is where Wordsworth describes the city. He lists "Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples" (6) as "bright and glittering in the smokeless air" (8). This is radically different from his other poetry because a city instead of straight nature. It's interesting to see this other side to Wordsworth, as if he can find beauty in anything, even cities. The city is clean (smokeless) and covered in sunshine, and Wordsworth states that he has "never felt, a calm so deep" (11). This last section of the poem is absolutely beautiful and full of striking imagery. The river gliding along at its own sweet will (12), the houses seeming to be asleep (13)... everything he says just paints an amazing picture of his surroundings. Even though he is in a city, Wordsworth still feels very connected to everything around him. He even creates a very vivid metaphor in the last line of the sonnet saying, "And all that mighty heart is lying still!" (14). Here I thought he was calling the city a mighty heart. This brought to mind images of a heart beating and pulsing with life, but since the city is empty the heart is lying still. This gives Wordsworth a calming feeling, and he is able to see the beauty within the city like he usually sees in natural surroundings.

Explicating Wordsworth

"London, 1802"

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.


 Analysis-

This is a sonnet written by Wordsworth, and I chose to explicate it because we didn't get to cover it much in class and I thought it was a beautiful poem. As I said it is a sonnet using iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDDECE. The poem is so interesting to me because it is not like the other Wordsworth poems we covered in class: it does not merely focus on nature, but addresses a specific person. The plot of the sonnet follows the rhyme scheme; in the first section (ABBA ABBA), the speaker of the poem addresses John Milton and laments the fact that he is no longer living. The speaker states that England is in need of him because they have forgotten how to be happy, have turned selfish, and need Milton to give them "manners, virtue, freedom, power" (8). In the second section (CDDECE), Wordsworth praises Milton and his character, even calling him "pure...majestic, free" (11). The stark difference between the octave and the sestet is the contrast between the character of the people of England and the character of Milton.


The most important thing that jumped out at me about this poem is that, while the focus of Wordsworth's thoughts is not nature, he still incorporates nature through the characterization of Milton. In the first 8 lines the image of England we get is that of a "...fen/Of stagnant waters" (2-3), while the image of Milton is pure nature: his "soul was like a star" (9), his "voice whose sound was like the sea" (10), and he is "pure as the naked heavens" (11). Milton, for Wordsworth, had an untarnished soul that was intimately connected to nature, while the people of London today are like stagnant waters. He says they are "selfish men" (6) and "have forfeited their...happiness" (5-6). By marking this difference between the two, Wordsworth was putting Milton on a pedestal, as he usually does with the concept of nature.


The poem has a somber tone, and I couldn't help but be a little sad when I read it. If Wordsworth lived today he would be disgusted with the state of things. Not many people today appreciate and love nature the way Wordsworth did, and I think America today would also qualify as a fen of stagnant waters. This poem echoed both Emerson and Thoreau for me, two of my absolute favorite writers. They also noted people's lack of inspiration from nature, and urged us to return to it in order to find true happiness. It seems like Wordsworth wrote "London, 1802" after being disgusted with his fellow man's apathy in life, and was yearning for the time when men like Milton were not few and far between. I felt like the last three lines of the poem show how much Wordsworth deeply respects Milton:

                   So didst thou travel on life's common way,
                   In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
                   The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
                                                            (Lines 12-14)


 Wordsworth obviously had an enduring respect for Milton, and I think it would be good for modern readers to look to this poem often as a reminder as to why Wordsworth thought we were losing our happiness and becoming more selfish. As Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" (Walden). The answer to this desperation is to be found in nature, which I think is the ultimate meaning of this sonnet.