The World Is Too Much With Us, Indeed

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.

          This is one of my favorite poems from the entire term. I tend to love nature writing and anything that points towards our modern obsessions with technology and everything, but the natural world. Being a Religious Studies major I have becoming jaded with my concept of who God is. I was raised Christian, yet I have never had a distinct church to attend. I kind of just bounced around denominations going to whichever one felt appropriate at the time. In doing this I began to see the hypocrisy that existed within these churches and soon I would realize that it existed in not just "my" religion, but every religion. 

              I became disheartened by this fact and pulled away from Christianity altogether and began to search for a more meaningful way to express my faith and what I found was nature. I had always found a solace when taking long walks through the woods near my childhood home and regardless of how terrible my circumstances at that moment, I knew I could count on nature to be there for me. So naturally today, I have in many respects withdrawn from the "world" to rest in nature. Wordsworth is absolutely correct in saying "the world is too much with us". People no longer see the natural world as sacred and something embodying the very being of God himself, and to me this is a great tragedy. We have lost touch with nature and therefore God, becoming too consumed with busy tasks and technology to reconnect with Him. It is a very sad state of affairs if you ask me.