William Wordsworth "The World is t oo much With Us; Late and Soon"

William Wordsworth"The World is too much With Us; Late and Soon" By: Kyle, Molly, and Zack

William Wordsworth Bio • Born on April 7th , 1770 • He and Samuel T. Coleridge invented a new style of poetry in their poetry collection, Lyrical Ballads, which helped launch the Romantic Era of English literature • Lived in England’s scenic Lake District instead of urban London. The landscape, full of hills, valleys, and lakes, was hisinspiration for many of his poems • He died at Rydal Mount, England on April 23rd , 1850

Background on Wordsworth as a poet • Poetic composition was his primary mode of expression • Wrote without metrical structure • Remembered as a poet that was concerned with human relationship to nature • Argues that poetry should be written in natural language of common speech • Poems should offer access to the emotions contained in memory

Journal • Are we addicted to technology and material things? How long could you go without your phone?

Background on Poem • Probably written in 1802 • Published in 1807 • Written about humanity’s inability to “feel” nature’s beauty • A Petrarchan Sonnet • Written in iambic pentameter, has 5 sets of stressed and unstressed syllables • Rhyme Scheme: ABBA ABBA CDCDCD

Information on Poem • Theme and main idea: Angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with material things and have lost touch with nature • Tone: Angry, annoyed. He wants people to appreciate the beauty of nature instead of focusing on material things • Elements of Poetry: metaphor, simile, alliteration, imagery, and end rhyme.

Poem: The World is too much With Us; Late and Soon” 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 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 wreathed horn.

Summary • The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: The author believes that we are too addicted to consumerism and power. • Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! We no longer see the beauty of nature, it has become worthless to us. • The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours And are gathered now like sleeping flowers For this, for everything we are out of tune;

Summary Continued Wordsworth continues to criticize man for distance from nature. The “Sea” and “Wind” are representative of nature. The author says that we are “out of tune” because we are separated from nature. • It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn He would rather be a Pagan than be separated from nature. • So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; He’s standing on an open grassland and pondering.

Summary Continued • Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn Proteus is the GOD of the sea and Triton is a moon. He says he might see Proteus coming out of the ocean or Triton blowing his horn.

Why is this a Romantic poem? • It was written during the Romantic period which was from 1790 to 1824 • It talks about nature • It resembles some of our modern-day problems with the environment

Real World Connection • Today there is so much technology and buildings like shopping malls, that people tend to focus more on buying material things and texting on their cell phones than watching and appreciating nature. Most people are also more worried about social networking than on things like deforestationand urbanization.

Group’s Opinion • It was surprising how true the poem was today even when it was written about 200 years ago. It tells readers that even in the 1800s, people were more obsessed with material things than they were about nature. • We know that Wordsworth really cares about nature because we can tell that his tone is angry.

William Wordsworth "The World is t oo much With Us; Late and Soon"