The World Is Too Much With Us By Wordsworth: Poem Analysis

What Would Be Left of Nature

Sometimes is overwhelming the beautiful world in which humans live in that it is impossible to fully appreciate it. Humanity has taken and damaged nature so much that is right to think “what would be left it?”. In William Wordsworth’s poem “The World Is Too Much With Us” the speaker criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution for distancing humans from the beauty of nature. The impact of a busy schedule has made a negative change in people interest. The use of personification and imagery in this poem imply that the author relates natural characteristics with human characteristics to convince the readers of the impact the First Industrial Revolution had on nature and the change on people’s interest, these comparisons indicate the connections between natural and human qualities like “sleeping” (line 7) and “standing” (11).

The poem is a sonnet and it was first published in 1907. The poem is conformed of fourteen lines. The author used first person at the beginning of the poem like “us” (1) and “ours” (3), in order to create a feeling of connection between humans and nature. The tone that the author used is angry and disappointed, he used this tone to show his disgust with humanity for destroying the natural resources and not appreciating the joys of nature. The structure and the characteristics of the poem help the reader understand and analyze the main point of the poem and why the author decided to use those terms to convince his audience of the impact of neglecting the natural resources the world provides.

The title of the poem, “The World Is Too Much With Us” indicates that the author is focusing in the loss of nature and the appreciation humans had for it. the speaker claims that “late and soon” (1) humanity will end with nature “getting and spending” (2) the natural resources in the world. Also, the change in people interests has transformed humans into self-absorbed individuals and “giving our heart away” (4) to materialistic world. The speaker continues to compare human feelings with natural characteristics to have an impact or a change in people, for humans to stop destroying nature.

This sonnet connects humanity with nature using personification and analyses the relationship between the two. The main theme of the poem is to show how humans had lost the connection with nature and had fall into a materialistic world. The speaker refers to society as “sleeping flowers” (7) to make a connection between the nature and humans. The speaker also meant that people is “sleeping” (7) in a material world and would not wake up to see the comforts of nature has to offer. The speaker also discussed with detail the perfection of nature to demonstrate what people is missing thinking only in the artificial.

The author utilized personification to describe what nature has to offer. For example, “this sea that bares her bosom to the moon” (5) means that nature is waiting for humans to appreciate the beauty it can offer. Wordsworth used personification to combine humans’ feelings with natural aspects in order to put emphasis on the relationship between mankind and Earth. Also, in this poem personifications acts as a call for action to reconnect the readers with nature.

The use of imagery forces the readers to visualize the speaker’s emotions and ideas. Wordsworth uses images such as, “winds that will be howling” (6) and “sleeping flowers” (7) to help reader imagine the things that he is seeing and feeling.