My group was assigned William Wordsworth’s Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 and The World Is Too Much with Us. These two poems are sonnets, which are fourteen-line iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line). Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 is about how the speaker described the view from the bridge. His depiction of London in the morning was of awe from the beauty. The World Is Too Much with Us on the other hand is the speaker’s feelings towards modern age. It has lost its connection to nature and everything meaningful. Humans became too preoccupied with material. The speaker was very descriptive in both poems, but I was more drawn to The World Is Too Much with Us.
The World is too much with us is basically a complaint of the world being too overwhelming and that we’re so concerned about time and money that we waste our energy. “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!” (Lines 2-4). These lines describe that we turned the world into something in which we don’t see anything valuable within Nature. The speaker describes in the poem that it’s like we’ve sold our soul and lives.
I agree with the speaker and can kind of relate it to myself. I feel that everyone is too caught up with life, meaning work, school, and the future. We all want to be successful but we’re not appreciating the little things in life such as nature or even just life. In the past, I’d always love going to various places with amazing views such as bays, piers, beaches, etc. I’d just stay there and admire at the view, letting it sink in. I really miss those times and I realize that I barely have time now because I’m so involved with what I MUST do. There’s immense burden and weight of my future. I work, and I go to school because I want to become a successful person and not disappoint anyone. Knowing that I’m concerned about my life makes me as sad as the speaker is about the world. Maybe if everyone slowed down a bit and took a deep breath, they’d would be a bit happier.
