The World Is Too Much with Us

In "The World is Too Much With Us," the speaker laments the loss of man's intimate connection to the natural world in the wake of industrialism and a greater desire for worldly success. When...

"We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" The sonnet is obviously saying that most of us, or many of us, including the speaker himself, presumably Wordsworth, have become so involved in...

In "The World is Too Much With Us," Wordsworth uses a number of literary devices to reinforce his key ideas. The setting of the poem, for example, is important because it creates an idyllic and...

Wordsworth laments modern man's separation from the natural world. He understands the rapid industrialization taking place in his time period as alienating humans from nature. He decries the...

The speaker appears to be standing by himself looking out at the ocean. The line preceding the three you have quoted should also be included in this explication. This sea that bears her bosom to...

When Wordsworth says that "The world is too much with us," he is setting "the world" in opposition to to other sources of value, which he regards as more meaningful. Although Wordsworth's religious...

Romanticism as an artistic and literary movement began in the late eighteenth century and continued until the mid-nineteenth century. The beginning of the Romantic Movement in England is said to be...

Although the theme and dramatic situation in "The World is Too Much With Us" are close to one another, there is some significant divergence between the two. Initially, when looking at the...

This is one of Wordsworth's most explicit statements comparing man's preoccupation with his economic status and his consequent failure to perceive what is really important--nature and all it...

The section of the poem where the "sleeping flowers" appears is a point where Wordsworth employs a series of natural images that are designed to bring to light all of what is being missed when one...

William Wordsworth's sonnet "The World is Too Much with Us" meditates on the way the modern world (early 1800s) is overly commercialized, causing humans to become separate from nature. Wordsworth...

The speaker of the sonnet is standing on a promontory looking at the ocean. He sees the beauty of "This sea that bares her bosom to the moon" and that of "The winds that will be howling at all...

Wordsworth is talking about how the wind sounds: he says it howls. While the words are self-explanatory, the context needs to be explained. Wordsworth is saying in this sonnet that modern humans...

This poem, a sonnet by William Wordsworth, fits into the Romantic tradition and utilizes numerous tenets common to Romantic literature: classical allusions, a personification of the natural...

Diction is very important in poetry because it creates tone or mood, and the language of poetry is typically relatively condensed (as compared to prose). In Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With...

Consider the title of the poem. Wordsworth is saying that humans perceive the world as human-centered. In other words, people focus too much on themselves and on human culture itself. We focus more...

Wordsworth was a foreward thinking, already noting the "revolution" that was happening as industrialization swept through England. In the late 1700s, the mechanization of many production...

I can answer this not line by line, but every couple/few lines . And keep in mind this was written in 1807, NOT in this day and age. Looking at it now we could really tie in a lot of technology...

In all his poetry, Wordsworth strives to reach out to the ordinary people. His individuality and style had purposeful intent and he sought nothing less than the revitalization of poetry and...

Wordsworth does not say he would like to remain a pagan but that he would rather be a pagan than be a materialistic modern man without any religious belief, engrossed in making money and buying...

Wordsworth is thinking of the materialistic and self-centered attitudes and activities of people in the "world" that he refers to in the opening of his poem. He is making the point that people miss...

“Late” refers to the most recent past and the present. “Soon” is the future. Wordsworth’s theme or warning here is that in recent and future times, it seems that humans have lost touch with nature...

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 universal theme...

The lea, on which the speaker is clearly standing, is the focal point from which his observations emanate in William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us." For, it is from this point that...

William Wordsworth’s poem “The World Is Too Much With Us” scolds mankind for ignoring nature and placing too much emphasis on his own society. Instead of communing with nature, man is only...

The chief comparisons between the two lay in (1) the subjects (nature) and (2) the poetic form (sonnets). Both subjects address the lamentable power of riches and enterprise--in a world of greed...

To answer this question, we should first look at the definition of syntax. It is defined as... ...the study of the patterns of formation of sentences and phrases from words. In simple terms, the...

The "world" in this poem is presented by Wordsworth in overwhelmingly negative terms. His central argument in this poem is that we have given ourselves over to the world to such a degree that we...

William Wordsworth criticizes the modernization of the world and humanity's increasing infatuation with consumption and materialism. The speaker feels that humans have lost touch with nature and...

The poem is an Italian sonnet, written as one 14 line stanza. The sonnet uses one stanza with a break in line 9. It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be The lines are not divided...

Concerning your question about Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us," there's more to determining an octave and sestet and studying how the poem works than just counting lines. In fact, in...

One important theme in this poem is the movement of the human race away from its spiritual history and towards modern living. The author sees modern ideas as more shallow, despite their...

Composed during the turn of the nineteenth century, William Wordsworth's sonnet "The World Is Too Much with Us" quite clearly illustrates the author's disdain for materialism through his use of...

The antecedent for "It" in line nine of Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much With Us" is, in general, nature. Specifically, the "It" refers back to "The Sea" in line five and "The winds" in line...

This poem by William Wordsworth speaks to the same longing, the same desires, as virtually all of his other poems, so it is safe to see the first person narrator character as Wordsworth himself....

William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much With Us" laments the disconnect between humanity and the natural world that surrounds it. The poem begins in the following way: The world is too much...

In this sonnet, Wordsworth's speaker pits nature against civilization. He states that we lost something when we turned away from nature in pursuit of money and profit. The "world" that is "too much...

“The World Is Too Much with Us” is an Italian sonnet. These sonnets are also termed Petrarchan sonnets. Ensure you understand the format of a typical Italian sonnet. As with other sonnets, it...

The structure and syntax of Wordsworth is a bit on the unconventional side. It seems as if the poem itself is a type of reflection and pensive understanding about the condition of human beings...

In Wordsworth's sonnet "The World is Too Much With Us," the narrator contrasts a way of living that is close to nature with a way of living that centers on materialism. He calls the materialist way...

In "The World Is Too Much With Us," William Wordsworth establishes his reputation as a poet of nature by focusing on the distance with which humankind has removed itself from nature. Wordsworth...

Essentially, the speaker, presumably Wordsworth, is lamenting a social condition that is predicated upon wealth acquisition and conformity. In this setting, the speaker believes that individuals...

An English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth bemoans the materialistic society that has lost touch with the natural world. Now they are almost captives of this world of materialism, having lost...

This poem is above all a lament at the way that mankind has given himself over to the cold-hearted, mercantile pursuit of possessions and wealth. Wordsworth begins the poem with expressing how sad...

This poem is a signature piece for Romanticism – a plea to turn away from human enterprises, commerce (“Getting and spending”), materialism, etc., because it alienates us from, and weakens our...

William Wordsworth’s poem beginning “The world is too much with us” laments the alienation of human beings from the beauties and power of nature. Although the poem opens by stressing that humans...

In William Wordworth's poem, "The World is Too Much With Us," the reader is bombarded with images of nature. This is not a surprise as Wordsworth was one of the two first-generation Romantics,...

In short, William Wordsworth thinks that we should be moved by nature and that we are not anymore. Although the title/first line of the poem is ambiguous, all possible interpretations of it lead to...

This is a difficult question. It seems doubtful that there would be othre poems that carry the same theme as Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us." In this poem, Wordsworth laments the...

Proteus is an ancient Greek god of the sea and rivers. Specifically, according to legend, he holds domain over “sea change," sometimes referred to as water boundaries or the tides, but in general...