"The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon" by William Wordsworth

The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon
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! 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. 










William Wordsworth, one of the founders of Romanticism, emphasizes the importance of nature within his poem. Just a little background on Romanticism, the movement places grave importance on the inequality of industrialization, government, and social classes. Not only this, the movement has a strong obsession with nature and it's effects.

Starting in the first two lines of the poem the speaker claims, "The world is too much with us" and "getting and spending". The first phrase "The world is too much with us", when read aloud, we notice an alliteration of the "u" sound. This creates a crowding effect within the phrase that points to the larger point of the poem of the world being too complicated and too much for the speaker. The phrase "getting and spending" could be a reference to the consumerism that plays a role within the current "world" that the speaker is describing. In addition, the fact that the speaker uses "getting and spending" as gerunds indicates their almost never ending nature as if this type of society is a continual progression.  In the next line, the speaker claims, "Little we see in Nature that is ours". This phrase seems to indicate the loss of inspiration and ownership of nature that society had previously had. The speaker then moves on to say "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" The speaker seems to use a sarcastic tone because sordid has the denotation of moral distaste and contempt while boon has the denotation of a reward of some sort. Thus, the contradictory nature of the phrase elucidates the speaker's contempt with current society. In the next 3-4 lines, the speaker compares elements of the nature he holds so dearly such as the "sea" and "winds" to "sleeping flowers". The speaker uses personification to exemplify the message of society not adhering to the influential powers of nature anymore. In the next couple lines, there seems to be a shift in tone when the speaker claims, "...Great God! I'd rather be/ A pagan suckled in a creed outworn." Paganism is a primitive form of religious belief, which makes this phrase so interesting because it is as if the speaker wishes he could become more obsolete. In the next couple lines, we learn why he would want to be a pagan. The speaker claims, "Have glimpses that would be less forlorn". The speaker seems to be saying that paganism would allow him to have glimpses of how nature should be perceived with all it's great power and importance. In the last two lines, the speaker alludes to "Triton" and "Proteus" which are greek sea gods who have the power to influence the sea. This allusion help promotes the speaker's want to go back and appreciate the powers of nature.

Hamlet Act 2 Thoughts

This is definitely one of the larger acts in the novel in which there are two scenes. Just to recap, Polonius sends his servant Reynaldo to France with money and notes for Laertes. However, his primary motive for sending him is so he can spy on Laertes. After Reynaldo leaves, Ophelia enters with an upset attitude. She tells her father that Hamlet came to her, grabbed her, and sighed heavily but did not speak to her. Polonius thinks that Hamlet is madly in love wit her but must distance himself from her because of Polonius. polonius believes that his lack of love causes Hamlet's weird mood and goes to Claudius to tell of his opinion. One of the main questions that I had with the Act was what is the purpose of Hamlet acting so madly in love for Ophelia? For example, in Act 2 Scene 1, Polonius claims, "Affection, put! You speak like a green girl/Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his "tenders" as you call them."Tenders is an important word in this scene that has a multitude of denotations such as a boat used to ferry people and supplies to and from a ship or a rail car connected to a steam locomotive to carry fuel and water. These denotations are so interesting because they display how the "tender" is used to carry out a specific task that connects two aspects that are distanced from each other. Maybe Hamlet is using Ophelia as his tender to connect himself with Polonius in order to carry out his task of restoring the order within the Danish society. This is further exemplified through the connotation of the color green which is how Ophelia is described. Green has the connotation of inexperience and thus represents Ophelia's ability to be taken advantage of. Another question that I had about this scene was what Hamlet's true motive or rather the ghost's true motive is within the Danish society. In act 1 scene 1, Hamlet claims to "obey" his mother on not going to Wittenberg. Similarly, in Act 2 Scene 2, Ophelia claims to "obey" her father on not going to see Hamlet anymore. The word obey is used throughout the text and has an interesting denotation which is to behave in accordance with a general principle or natural law. During this time, order and structure was everything and was modeled after teh Great Chain of Being which displays the hierarchy and order that society should follow. It is interesting to note that this Great Chain of Being is completely corrupt with much disorder in the Denmark system. For example, the throne was not passed on to Hamlet who was the rightful heir and even more disorder is caused by the Ghost. This theme and motif of disorder combined with the denotation of obey places light upon the potential purpose of Hamlet's actions which are to restore order within the Danish society through revenge for his ghostly father.