THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US – CRITICAL ANALYSIS (WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

This post is about the critical analysis of The World Is Too Much With Us written by William Wordsworth. In this post you will find out the complete summary of the poem in an easy to understand language. Moreover you will find some extra information about the poet as well as the poem in this post which you will certainly find helpful. Let us find the critical analysis of The World Is Too Much With Us written by William 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.

ABOUT THE POET

William Wordsworth was one of the greatest poets of the 19^th century, during the Romantic Era. He was an English Romantic poet, who had contributed a lot to forming the Romantic Era, during the 19^th century. He was born on 7^th April 1770 in the United Kingdom. He took his last breath on 23^rd April 1850 in the UK.

Our poet, William Wordsworth is a nature lover and most of his poems are based upon Nature. This poem, “The world is too much with us”, is also up on the nature where he criticises the environment during the Industrial Revolution. This is because, during this era, people were much more concerned about the materialistic objects than that of natural elements.

During this era, William Wordsworth, who was an English romantic poet, had written many of his famous poems upon nature, such as, ‘It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free ‘, ‘On Seeing a Tuft of Snowdrops in a Storm ‘, etc. and “The World is too much with us”, is one of those famous poems.

ABOUT THE POEM

This poem, “The World is too much with us”, had been written by William Wordsworth in the year 1802.During this era, Wordsworth had written many of his famous poems upon  nature and  “The World is too much with us” is one of them.  This is a sonnet by Wordsworth which  mostly describes about the World and the people during the first Industrial Revolution.

According to the poet, at the time the world and the people of English were very much concern about the materialistic things thn that of those realistic and natural elements.

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

THEME of the Poem:

 Individual v/s Society:- This poem is all about modernity and developed status of people. After the industrial revolution, people started to rely more upon materialistic things than the natural beauty.

This poem is a sonnet where,  in the first 8 lines,  The poet has introduced himself and others as ‘we’. His signified on how human beings are being satisfied with the materialistic things and how they had easily accepted the changes of industrial revolution.

 In this first part, the poet used the term, ‘we’, In order to specify the fact that, due to this industrial revolution, the humans (we) Had forgotten the true sense of uniqueness and they do nothing to reveal themselves and their individual personality.

 Whereas, in the second half of the poem, the poet had switched the pronoun used, from ‘we’ to ‘I’. Through this ‘I’, the poet wants to express the personal living standard of the humans and their coping style with the changes during the industrial revolution.

Nature :- In this poem, “The World is too much with us”, the speaker highlights the relationship between Mankind and Nature, during that era.

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

The poet feels that once upon a time, this relationship between the mankind and nature was very good. There was a strong bond off understanding between nature and mankind. Both used to think about each others existence and care for the need of others.

 but during the industrial revolution, things had changed a lot. Men started to overpower the nature. Men started to overpower the nature. They gradually started to forget all Natural sources and its beauty and had completely diminished the interaction with the Nature, which is an impact of their busy life. The men had given more importance to the materialistic things than that of natural things.

People nowadays, are engulfed with the feelings of lust for money and fame and for materialistic things.

Lust for Materialistic World :- According to the poet,  the nature of humankind had changed a lot after the industrial revolution. The continuous rat race for materialistic things by the mankind had detached them from coming close to the nature. They had become since less an ignorance towards the Nature and had grown a sense of ‘lust’  for the materialistic things.

But this humans doesn’t understand what they’re losing by being departed from the nature. Rather, they are more concerned about their fame, power and money.

but the poet feels that he would prefer to be poor and infamous and stay near to the nature  rather than being fascinated by those materialistic world.

STRUCTURE of the Poem:

This poem, “The World is too much with us”, Is a 14 line poem, also known as a sonnet.  Basically there are two types of sonnets- Petrarchan sonnet and Shakespearean sonnet and this poem is written in a Petrarchan sonnet format.

This poem has fourteen lines where the first eight lines are known as octave and the next six lines are known sestet.

It also has a rhyming scheme of ABBA ABBA CDCDCD, and it is written in the format of Iambic Tetrameter.

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

BACKGROUND of the Poem:

This poem, “The World is too much with us”, was written by William Wordsworth in the year 1802 and it was later been published in  Wordsworth’s Poems, in ‘Two Volumes’, in the year 1807.

William Wordsworth was an English romantic poet and had written many English poems during that era. This poem was also written during the first Industrial Revolution, where the poet had criticised  strongly the changes that had come across during that time.  The poet feels that the people during the first Industrial Revolution had become more indulgence towards materialistic things than towards respecting the Nature and its beauty.

LITERARY DEVICES of the Poem:

Literary Devices are commonly used in the poems in order to enhance the clarity and expression of the poem. it explains the meaning of the poem in a better way. In this poem also our poet, William Wordsworth had used few literary devices. They are as follows:-

Enjambment:-

“Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;”

Personification:-

“This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,”

Imagery :- It is a type of literary devices which makes the readers imagine the feelings of the poet, through visual or other imageries. In this poem also there are some imageries being used up by the poet. They are-

“The winds that will be howling”

Simile :-

“And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,”

Metaphor  :-

“suckled in a creed outworn;”

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US