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The World is Too Much with Us
I(caps)n ‘The World is Too Much With Us,’ William Wordsworth takes you and I back to his natural environment, to which he pays little or no attention. The poet reviews the prevailing social problems of the Romantic and Victorian periods. Humanity prefers to be occupied with the material or perishable things of life instead of the need to nurture the natural environment as emphasized in the lines of the poem. People have lost touch with the essence of nature, its revitalizing strength, productive power, and maternal beauty.
...we lay waste our powers,
Little we see in nature what is ours.
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours…
For this, for everything we are out of tune.
Other themes of the poem are neglect, misplaced priority, social recklessness, and wastefulness, disappointment, and beauty.
The poet uses natural allusion to further drive home nature-related issues raised in the poem. Some of them are “moon,” “winds,” “flowers,” and “sea.” Allusion is also made to “Proteus,” sea goddess of the Greek, and “Triton,” Greek goddess of nature and fertility. A combination of visual and auditory images such as “winds that will be howling at all hours,” “Sight of Proteus rising from the sea,” “this pleasant lea” also adorns the poem. The poet’s choice of words is familiar since they are chosen from the natural environment.
3.2 A Night Piece
The poem reveals the poet’s impression of the cloud. He experiments with natural imagery. He looks up at the cloud, “the sky is overspread,” to connect the continuous cloud with a “veil.” The moon gives “whitened” light to brighten the extending cloud in strange grasp to provoke a shadowy appearance on plants and trees. The cloud is helped by a multitude of stars to produce “instantaneous light,” and this makes it possible for the “musing man” to share from the greatness of the cloud. Humanity is pleased by the “glory of the heavens”; thus, he is able to engage in impressive sailing and other activities that are of advantage to him. The poet recalls the dignity of the stars and clouds from her great summit, the windy and spirited beauty of the combined marriage of convenience of the stars and cloud are generously expressed in the poem. The poet recalls:
The sky is overspread
With a close veil of one continuous cloud,
All whitened by the moon that just appears,
A dim-seen orb, yet chequers not the ground
With any shadow-plant, or tower, or tree.
At last, a pleasant gleam breaks forth at once,
An instantaneous light; the musing man
Who walks along with his eyes bent to earth.
3.3 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
The poet recalls his experience of wandering over the hills, mountains, and valleys. He ran into a cloud and then golden “daffodils beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” The poet explains:
...continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Nature here complements the other for healthy living; the shining stars helped the lily to “toss their heads in sprightly dance.” Wordsworth recalls the dancing and “sparkling waves in glee.” But the poet could not avoid imagining the gaze at the daffodils that give the poet a wealth of creativity - “what wealth the show to me had brought.” The poet’s gaze at the flowers triggers Wordsworth’s creative imagination:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Wordsworth is haunted by the creative will deposited in him by nature: “Mounting of the mind comes fast upon me.”
The power in creativity makes the poet bold, gives him peace, and the miracle of life “promises of life” and “undisturbed delight.” The poet believes in the visionary ideal and prophetic ability of nature to support prospects, “point me on my course,” helps along the path of a “chosen task.” The maternal role of nature to the poet is emphasized, “dwell on shore,” “gather fruits fresh” from nature’s trees. All such gifts of nature, the poet says, consecrate his joy. The breeze, which he describes as the breath of heaven blowing on his “body felt within,” all with “mild creative breeze.” The poet recognizes the creative power in nature “vexing its own creation” that comes with recognizable identity, its “virtue,” “thoughts,” “dignity,” “prowess,” “pure passion,” “knowledge,” “delight,” “holy life of music,” and of the verse.”
3.4 I Traveled among Unknown Men
Wordsworth’s journey here refers to mental travel and actual journey, the latter probably to Germany. He journeyed among “unknown men” in “lands beyond the sea.” The poem is also Wordsworth’s declarative statement and patriotism to his verse style. The imaginative process is the journey, the outcome of the poet’s thought, its novelty. The poet confesses his love for the verse “the love I bore to thee,” “nor will I quit thy shore,” “I seem to love thee more and more.” He admits, “Among thy mountains did I feel the joy of my desire.”
The poet openly declares his interest in poetry or the Art for which he vowed never to quit, a reflection of his commitment to rural verse creative experience.
3.5 The London Beggar
The poet paints a gruesome picture of the city of London reports - the mystery, neglect, and wretchedness that characterized the great city. “Oh friend, one feeling was there which belonged to this great city by exclusive right.” Wordsworth calls our attention to the tickly populated city, “In the overflowing streets.” He tells us that one could know so much about the city of London, by merely taking a glance at the faces of passers-by in the streets of London. The poem reads:
Have I gone forward with the crowd, and said
Unto myself, “The face of everyone
That passes by me is a mystery.”
The poet vows to live above the suffering that characterized the city of London, like a plague, and for which he also suffers but “ceased to look oppressed.” The development inflicts frights in the populace “the present, past, hope, fear all stays.” Beggars litter the streets of London in search of survival. The poet doubts if social begging is not already endemic, or a plague that could afflict anyone. He paints the picture of a blind beggar who, “with upright face,” stood propped against a wall, up on his chest. The beggar wears a written paper to explain his own “story…” and “who he was.” The poet is familiar with the emblem of the blind beggar, a common experience with the poet’s universe.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Discuss the poet’s vision in ‘The Word is Too Much with Us’.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have discussed William Wordsworth’s ‘The World is Too Much With Us’, ‘A Night Piece’, ‘I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud’, ‘I Traveled among Unknown Men’, and ‘The London Beggar’.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learned:
- the poet’s impression in ‘The World is Too Much with Us’;
- themes in ‘A Night Piece’;
- the focus of the poet in ‘I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud’;
- the poet’s feeling for the London populace as seen in ‘The London Beggar’;
- nature of the poet’s journey in ‘I Traveled among Unknown Men’; we have discussed William Wordsworth’s ‘The World is Too Much With Us’, ‘A Night Piece’, ‘I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud’, ‘I Traveled among Unknown Men’, and ‘The London Beggar’ nature of the poet’s journey in ‘I Traveled among Unknown Men’;
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