by Joan Inong

Created on: June 16, 2009

Though Wordsworth's "The world is too much with us" was written more than a century ago, it still holds meaning for the world today. And, though the speaker does not describe any specific instances or events, the poem's tone and its emphasis on sentiments and appeal to the emotions are relevant to the plight of the modern world.

The poem begins with the famous phrase "The world is too much with us." This phrase is separated from the rest of the poem, not with a period, but with a semicolon. By doing so, the phrase is still important to the understanding of the rest of the poem.

But, what does it mean for the world to be too much with us? The rest of the poem explains why. People are "getting and spending" (line 2) and have "given [their] hearts away" (line 4). They are not as close to nature as they should be. "A sordid boon!" (line 4) is an interesting phrase. A "boon" is like a blessing. But, it is described as "sordid." This word is negatively connoted; it means that the boon is not morally right.

The religiosity of this poem can be argued, especially since the phrase "Great God!" seems to be unbelievable in a poem written by Wordsworth. It appears that his later poems were more religiously connoted. At any rate, once the reader has reached this part of the poem, it is clear that all of these inhumane human acts are actually defined as "bad" because they are immoral. "The Sea" and "the Winds" are fighting against us, trying to tell us about our inability to be part of nature, but we do not heed them. So, the speaker concludes that "we are out of tune" (line 8) and "[i]t moves us not" (line 9).

As the poem heads to a close and reaches its turn, the speaker begins to conclude his thoughts. He then says that he would rather be a pagan who has "suckled in a creed outworn" (line 10). We can infer this to mean that the speaker would rather be happy and believing in something that is incomprehensible than to be what humans have currently been. By being this pagan, the speaker would then be able to "[h]ave glimpses that would make [him] less forlorn" (line 12). This is why he chose the word "suckled" in line 10. (Suckled is a word that, when chosen, has the connotation of comfort. One can relate it to a baby suckled at his mother's breast.)

The last two lines of the poem bring up mythological figures whose actions appear to be better than human actions. Proteus is rising from the sea and Triton is a sea god. Interestingly, this makes the poem religious in two senses; one is the classic Christian sense, and the other is a "heathen" sense (which, when compared to the line with the word "pagan," we see the relation).

"The world is too much with us" is a complicated poem that uses the classic schema and subject of human immorality, and then uses religion to invert that immorality and hide it. This poem is, like its message, very comforting.

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