The World Is Too Much With Us, by William Wordsworth The world is too much with us; late and soon, 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! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Notes 1...late and soon: now and soon to be 2...sordid boon: shameful gain; tarnished blessing. This phrase is an oxymoron, a form of paradox that juxtaposes contradictory words. 3...suckled... outworn: Brought up in an outdated religion. 4...Proteus: In Greek mythology, a sea god who could change shape at will and who possessed complete knowledge of the past, present, and future. 5...Triton: In Greek mythology, a sea god who had the body of a man and the tail of a fish. He used a conch—the spiral shell of a mollusk—as a trumpet.

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

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. – Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

What literary devices do you observe in this work? These might include allusions, metaphor, synecdoche (part for whole), alliteration, and so on…

What type of person is the speaker? What is the evidence to support your assertion?

What is the likely setting of this work? What evidence supports your assertion?

In closing, what does this work invite us to do or think? Is this a compelling argument? Does it really make any difference to you?