Wordsworth wrote poems about whatever he wanted and he wrote whenever he wanted. I thought that the world is too much with us was a good poem. "Getting and spending, we lay waste in our powers:" to me this meant that we walk throughout life not really comprehending the activities around us. We just get money and spend it. "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" we do not care about others and our hearts are cold. Which is true, we do have tendencies to not be kind to others and to be selfish. The poem as a whole seems like Wordsworth is taking a step back from his life to look back on it and think of all the aspects of life in general. This poem made me think of an anecdote from Plato that we read in FYS, it was about a man being held captive in a cave. When the man was place outside of the cave he was surrounded by beauty and was blinded by it. The world is too much with us could also be about the fact that nature is so beautiful and we as humans are only destroying it or that we just are not adding to the beauty.
The next poem in the book is It is a beauteous Evening and this poem is very peaceful. "it is a beauteous evening, calm and free" It makes me think of spring evenings when the weather is perfect to sit outside and relax. The air just makes you feel like you have no responsibilities or stress. "Breathless with adoration; the broad sun is sinking down in its tranquility" the more I think about those two lines, the more I think about a sunset on the beach. just being there makes the rest of the world disappear. I think Wordsworth was describing the sunset on the beach he was at. He really conveyed the scene through his words and the readers can easily imagine almost every aspect.
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3 comments:
I agree with the latter part of what you thought about Wordsworth's poem, "The World is too Much With Us." I think that it is very possible that he was upset and frustrated with the world around him. I agree that he probably thought man wasn't doing anything to add to nature's beauty; in fact, I think he found it hard to accept his own humanity because he could not help but compare mankind with the infinite beauty found in nature. He seems disappointed with the people around him, perhaps including himself. It would be interesting to consider what kind of changes and sacrifices Wordsworth was personally willing to make to change his world.
Jennifer,
Some good comments here on Wordsworth, and I like the way you tie in Plato's Allegory of the Cave to your discussion of "The World is too Much With Us." I also think it is a good practice to quote lines from a poem when you analyze it. At times, though, it seems you take the lines out of context and then free associate about them. I would prefer that you discuss the context of the lines in subsequent posts, and also to try to connect your observations and ideas more closely to the text. Be sure to provide a parenthetical citation with the line numbers when quoting poetry (or with page numbers when quoting prose). These changes in your approach will make your readings more persuasive and your blog more successful.
I thought that Wordsworth did very much appreciate nature and he was frustrated because he could not do anything to make others appreciate nature as he did. I agree with what you said about man not contributing to the beauty of nature...just look at times today and see how many is destroying much of nature. I also enjoyed the way you tied the reading in with an outside source.
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