William Wordsworth, an influential poet wrote “The World is too Much with Us,” which resonates with everyone today. I used the close-reading method of archeological digging to immerse myself into the overall meaning of the poem. Overall, what I had gathered from my close-reading was that Wordsworth was explaining to his readers that people lack the appreciation the things the world offers us. Through the use of imagery and the title, Wordsworth informs the reader of the overwhelming fact that beauty in the world is fading, and we (as humans) are destroying and not paying attention to it.

In line 5 he says, “This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon” and he uses personification to show that we have been shown the most intimate thing the world could give us. Bosom could mean either a chest of a woman or something that could be described as intimate. He continues on line 8, by saying “For this, for everything, we are out of tune” and it sheds light on the notion that since we are given the precious items since birth, we don’t allow us to appreciate what we have. Basically, he give a reason and continues on with an explanation.

The title of them poem, “The World is too Much with Us,” further proves the overall theme of this poem that people lack that appreciation the world offers us. He uses the words “too much with us” to show how we are given an overwhelming amount of ideas, beauty, and nature that we don’t focus on that, but rather focus on money and what it could buy for he says in line 2, “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. We ‘get and spend’ materialistic items that could be bought, sold, and recieved, and not the things that are surrounding us everyday – the ocean, the sky, the stars, etc.

Overall, the poem does have a meaningful tone and does resonate with the fast-paced evolving world we live in today. Using the archaeological dig method, I was able to dissect the poem using literary elements and trace back to the overall theme Wordsworth was trying to depict.