QI Bring out of the central idea of the poem 'The world is too much with us.' [10 Marks
Answers
The main theme of this poem is the deadening effect of materialism in the modern world, as encapsulated in the line: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." The poet laments this state of affairs and longs to turn his face away from what he sees as the soulless materialism of his time, to an earlier time when people were more attuned to nature and all its wonders and beauties. To this end, indeed, he declares himself as a kind of pagan, worshiping nature in all its forms. He ascribes to nature a vibrant spirit and life that is lacking in the modern world, the world of cities and commerce. His feeling of awe and reverence for nature can be labelled pantheism.
The poet is aware that his ideals might appear old-fashioned ("a creed outworn") but that doesn't bother him. Clearly he is deeply depressed and dissatisfied with contemporary life and longs for the comfort that the mystical beliefs of an earlier time would afford him, and make him "less forlorn." He wants to re-discover the sense of wonder in nature that he thinks people used to have, as seen in his invocation of the old nature deities, the sea-gods Proteus and Triton.
In Wordsworth's time - that is to say, the last decades of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth - there was an ever-increasing tendency to explain natural phenomena in practical, scientific terms. For Wordsworth and others of a similar romantic temperament, this meant the loss of a sense of wonder and enchantment about the world - an enchantment which he himself wanted to retain at all costs.
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