Romantic Poetry WebQuest

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William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

"The World is too much with us"

              1The world is too much with us; late and soon,

              2Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

              3Little we see in Nature that is ours;

              4We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

              5This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

              6The winds that will be howling at all hours,

              7And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

              8For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

              9It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

            10A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

            11So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

            12Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

            13Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

            14Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Notes

11-14] Cf. Spenser's Colin Clout's come Home againe, 283, "Yet seemed to be a goodly pleasant lea"; and line 245, "Triton, blowing loud his wreathed horne."

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