...Mark Cruz Professor Wood ENGL 1302-316 16 February 2015 Essay One: Theme Analysis of “The world is too much with us” by William Wordsworth In the poem “The world is too much with us” written by William Wordsworth, the speaker is almost condemning the human race as a whole for not appreciating the everlasting beauty of the nature around us. There was many themes in this poem but the one that was most prominent was the relationship between man and nature. The reader is given the feeling of guilt and I believe he was trying to open eyes of those that could not see this beauty. Wordsworth’s wordplay and metaphors in his poem reveals the importance of nature and the lack of appreciation we give it. The speaker in the poem wastes little time to begin to show his frustration with those that “lay waste our powers” (2). We are “Getting and spending” too much and are so caught up with consumerism that we are blind to the world around us (2). We spending all of our time and money on material things and are so selfish to not enjoy what beauty nature can give us for free. Wordsworth’s wordplay shows the faults that we possess and is hoping to change our ways. Even though this poem was written more than 200 years ago, Wordsworth still presents an issue that can relate to today. The speaker continues his rant and expresses his frustration even further when stating, “Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (3-4). People have taken...
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...Mishra 1 Saloni Mishra Prof. K. Dang English, Research Paper 22nd October 2015 Wordsworth and European Society “Rapine, avarice, expense, this is idolatry: and these we adore: Plain living and high thinking are no more” – William Wordsworth. From his choice of words, Wordsworth expresses nothing but disgust and despair. The idea behind this quote effectively summarizes William Wordsworth’s opinions regarding European society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and acts as a medium for Wordsworth to voice his beliefs pertaining to the world that surrounded him. Humans, on their journey towards evolution, have been distancing themselves from spiritual pursuits to be lured by the never-ending thirst for wealth. Wordsworth is a poet...
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...“Solitude” after reading William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us” brought clarity to many aspects of Thoreau’s essay. Wordsworth’s poem brought clarity to what Thoreau believed some people are missing or closing themselves off to when they sever their ties to the natural world, the bond that Thoreau himself has with nature and why it seems he has found happiness. There are many aspects of nature that many people miss that both Thoreau and Wordsworth see. When Wordsworth speaks of “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; / little we see in nature that is ours” (356), it clarifies a conversation Thoreau has within his essay with one of his “townsmen, who has accumulated what is called a handsome property” (50). The conversation that Thoreau has with this townsman leads the man to asking Thoreau how he could “give up so many of the comforts of life” (50). When Wordsworth’s quote is applied, it helps to illuminate the point that many people are so busy trying to gain material possessions that they can no longer see simple beauty in nature; everything has to have a monetary value to make it worthwhile for many people to pursue. It shows that many people do not find peace in nature, they only find it through the material world. Wordsworth in his poem expresses his belief that “we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon” (356) this emphasizes the aspect of Thoreau’s essay that deals with where many people have ended up in the world. Wordsworth’s quotation shows that...
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...William Wordsworth is the Romantic poet most often described as a "nature" writer; what the word "nature" meant to Wordsworth is, however, a complex issue. On the one hand, Wordsworth was the quintessential poet as naturalist, always paying close attention to details of the physical environment around him (plants, animals, geography, weather). At the same time, Wordsworth was a self-consciously literary artist who described "the mind of man" as the "main haunt and region of [his] song." This tension between objective describer of the natural scene and subjective shaper of sensory experience is partly the result of Wordsworth's view of the mind as "creator and receiver both." Wordsworth consistently describes his own mind as the recipient of external sensations which are then rendered into its own mental creations. Such an alliance of the inner life with the outer world is at the heart of Wordsworth's descriptions of nature. Wordsworth's ideas about memory, the importance of childhood experiences, and the power of the mind to bestow an "auxiliar" light on the objects it beholds all depend on this ability to record experiences carefully at the moment of observation but then to shape those same experiences in the mind over time. We should also recall, however, that he made widespread use of other texts in the production of his Wordsworthian (Keats said "egotistical") sublime: drafts of poems by Coleridge, his sisterDorothy's Journals, the works of Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson...
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...LINES COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE by William Wordsworth Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning; silent , bare, 5 Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky, All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did the sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; 10 Ne’er saw I, never felt a calm so deep! The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still! Earth has not anything to show more fair: * While crossing over the Westminster Bridge, the speaker makes a bold statement: he has found the most beautiful scene on the planet. * Of course, though, he's exaggerating. He really means something like, "At this particular moment, I can't imagine anywhere being more beautiful than the place I'm standing." It's almost more a reflection of his mood than of the outside world. Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: * He says that anyone who didn't stop, who just passed by with a glance, would be "dull...of soul." * The person who could just pass by has been jaded and worn down by experience to the point of dullness. He's also boring, which is another meaning of the word "dull." * The sight from the bridge is...
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...In the poem called “Report To Wordsworth” written by Boy Kim Cheng. The poem depicts a very negative image, which is that destruction of nature is imminent if mankind continues to colonialize and urbanize. In order to convey this image of the current natural world, the author uses language devices such as figurative language (personification, similes and metaphors), visual imagery, alliteration, contradiction and tone. Throughout the poem, the writer uses visual imagery in order to create this pessimistic feeling of today’s current natural. And that mankind is losing its special connection with nature, as we are busy with “getting and spending”. The author shows the importance of natures as he uses a capital letter when writing Nature. This consequently makes the word “nature” be considered as a great value. The author then uses phrases such as the phrase “Smothered by the smog,” (line 2) (which contains alliteration), exemplifies the idea that humans or anything associated with human activities are destroying nature. Such as in this case the pollution, that comes out of vehicles. In addition just like in William Wordsworth sonnet called “ The World Is Too Much With Us”, Cheng illustrates an image that if humans continue to colonies and urbanize, then the birds ; which symbolizes life and different species would become extinct, and consequently the planet would lack any life and harmony. In Addition, tone, symbols and repetition are of great importance in the poem...
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...animals, plants, rocks, etc. in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that happen or exist independently of people, such as the weather, the sea, mountains, the production of young animals or plants, and growth”. However, Marcel Isnard stated in Nature (1992) that “nature also means the principle or power that animates or even creates the objects of nature, and we speak of the laws of nature, sometimes spelt Nature.” (p. 185). Marcel continues with the idea that the interest of the Romantics in...
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...The Concept of Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost : A Comparative Study Chapter One Introduction 1. Background Poets have long been inspired to tune their lyrics to the variations in landscape, the changes in season, and the natural phenomena around them. The Greek poet Theocritus began writing idylls in the third century B.C.E. to glorify and honor the simplicity of rural life--creating such well known characters as Lycidas, who has inspired dozens of poems as the archetypal shepherd, including the famous poem "Lycidas" by John Milton. An idyll was originally a short, peaceful pastoral lyric, but has come to include poems of epic adventure set in an idealized past, including Lord Alfred Tennyson's take on Arthurian legend, The Idylls of the King. The Biblical Song of Songs is also considered an idyll, as it tells its story of love and passion by continuously evoking imagery from the natural world. The more familiar form of surviving pastoral poetry that has retained its integrity is the eclogue, a poem attuned to the natural world and seasons, placed in a pleasant, serene, and rural place, and in which shepherds often converse. The first eclogue was written by Virgil in 37 B.C.E. The eclogue also flourished in the Italian Renaissance, its most notable authors being Dante and Petrarch. It became something of a requirement for young poets, a form they had to master before embarking upon great original work. Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Edmund Spenser’s...
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...February 2013 Emotions Recollected in Tranquility: Wordsworth’s Concept of Poetic Creation Faria Saeed Khan Department of English Literature University of Balochistan, Quetta Abstract Wordsworth was of the view that ‘Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. When reading this statement, one might think that, for Wordsworth, poetic composition is solely based on the expression of emotions, excluding any reflection about them. But Wordsworth gave equal importance to the element of thought in poetry and says that poems to which any value is attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, has also thought long and deep. Wordsworth believes that artistic process is combination of thought and emotion. This research article will study Wordsworth’s concept of poetic creation Wordsworth believes that artistic process is combination of thought and emotion . During the poetic process, the poet is possessed by powerful passions but he undergoes a period of emotions reflected in tranquility. During this process the influxes of feelings are modified and directed by thoughts. The direction of thought adds a depth of meaning and truth to poetry. For Wordsworth poetry is a method of interpreting the reality or the meaning of life. Introduction Generally the critics criticize the Romantics for being too emotional. They quote Wordsworth’s famous statement, ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow...
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...E-texts A History of English Literature 1918 by Robert Huntington Fletcher Education Share Preface | How to Study | Tabular View | Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Assignments Chapter X. Period VIII. The Romantic Triumph, 1798 To About 1830 The Great Writers of 1798-1830 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | William Wordsworth | Robert Southey | Walter Scott | Last Group of Romantic Poets | Percy Bysshe Shelley | John Keats | Summary | Lesser Writers | THE GREAT WRITERS OF 1798-1830. THE CRITICAL REVIEWS. As we look back to-day over the literature of the last three quarters of the eighteenth century, here just surveyed, the progress of the Romantic Movement seems the most conspicuous general fact which it presents. But at the, death of Cowper in 1800 the movement still remained tentative and incomplete, and it was to arrive at full maturity only in the work of the great writers of the following quarter century, who were to create the finest body of literature which England had produced since the Elizabethan period. All the greatest of these writers were poets, wholly or in part, and they fall roughly into two groups: first, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Walter Scott; and second, about twenty years younger, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. This period of Romantic Triumph, or of the lives of its authors, coincides in time, and not by mere accident, with the period of the success of the French Revolution, the...
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...authors are influenced by those who preceded them in terms of both the form and content of their works. This is evident in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. McCarthy chooses not to imitate those greats that came before him such as Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, or Tennyson in terms of form; in fact, he deliberately avoids almost all conventional choices in terms of form. However, he is obviously influenced by their ideas. He ties together Wordsworth’s concern at his society losing touch with nature and Tennyson’s exploration of what a society’s priorities should be. He creates a world in which civilization has dissolved and the ecosystem is in chaos. It is implied that the society has lost touch with nature and this has resulted in the death of global civilization. His goal seems to be to awaken the world to the impact that humans have had on the environment and how that can or perhaps will be the source of our downfall. This concern is comparable to the fears of many in the environmental movement that humanity is destroying the natural world and unless drastic changes are made now, this degradation will be permanent. Many prominent politicians in the United States, such as Al Gore, author of An Inconvenient Truth, include environmental responsibility as a core aspect of their political platform. Indeed, in Europe there are many parties whose only focus is environmentally responsible legislation. The Green Party United States of America believes that capitalism’s focus on profit...
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...not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all” (qtd. in Coombs 41). Romantic writers “were interested primarily in universals, in looking at nature as the mirror of universal truth seen not in its particulars, that is, in celandines, daisies, birds, one man’s life, or remote regions of the past, but rather in the ordered harmony of sun, moons, stars, and seasons, and in the lives of men in general” (Coleridge in his Time 31). Coombs also states nature “offers a completely new set of spiritual values” (40). Many writers during this time had entire poems on the theme of nature, like William Wordsworth’s poem “The World is too much With Us”. Beach states that the theme of nature is continuous with Wordsworth (31). In the article “Coleridge in His Time: The Romantic Tradition”, it says Wordsworth “saw in the meanest flower that blows thoughts that lay too deep for tears; indeed, in the whole of...
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...did, as I recall, was a brief internship at a well-regarded Internet publication, a six-country swing though Europe, then back to enjoy his family and home, reconnect with high-school friends, and work on recording a rock CD. What had I done? I had written five drafts of a chapter for a book on the last two years of Sigmund Freud's life. I had traveled to Crozet, a few miles away, to get pizza. I'd sojourned overnight in Virginia Beach, the day after I woke up distressed because I couldn't figure out how to begin my chapter. I'd driven to the beach, figured it out (I thought), and then I'd come home. My young friend looked at me with a mixture of awe and compassion. I felt a little like one of those aged men of the earth who populate Wordsworth's poetry. One of them, the Old Cumberland Beggar, goes so slowly that you never actually see him move, but if you return to the spot where you first encountered him two hours past, lo, he has gone a little way down the road. The footprints are there to prove it. I headed back to my office for draft No. 6, or something comparably glamorous. Where was my student going? He was no doubt heading into a more turbocharged version of his summer, a life of supreme intensity created in collaboration with the laptop slung over his shoulder. For his...
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...The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature William Cronon This will seem a heretical claim to many environmentalists, since the idea of wilderness has for decades been a fundamental tenet-indeed, a passionof the environmental movement, especially in the United States. For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. It is an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one place we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness. Seen in this way, wilderness presents itself as the best antidote to our human selves, a refuge we must somehow recover if we hope to save the planet. As Henry David Thoreau once famously declared, “In Wildness is the preservation of the World.“’ But is it? The more one knows of its peculiar history, the more one realizes that wilderness is not quite what it seems. Far from being the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity, it is quite profoundly a human creation-indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history. It is not a pristine sanctuary where the last remnant of an untouched, endangered, but still transcendent nature can for at least a little while longer be encountered without the contaminating taint of civilization. Instead, it is a product of that civilization, and could hardly be contaminated by the very stuff of which it is made...
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...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE • Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe; • New inhabitants came from western and possibly north-western Europe (New Stone Age); • in the 2nd millennium BC new inhabitants came from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine (Stonehenge); • Between 800 and 200 BC Celtic peoples moved into Britain from mainland Europe (Iron Age) • first experience of a literate civilisation in 55 B.C. • remoter areas in Scotland retained independence • Ireland, never conquered by Rome, Celtic tradition • The language of the pre-Roman settlers - British (Welsh, Breton); Cornish; Irish and Scottish Gaelic (Celtic dialect) • The Romans up to the fifth century • Britain - a province of the Roman Empire 400 years • the first half of the 5th century the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (N Germany, Jutland) • The initial wave of migration - 449 A. D. • the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) • the Britain of his time comprised four nations English, British (Welsh), Picts, and Scots. • invaders resembling those of the Germans as described by Tacitus in his Germania. • a warrior race • the chieftain, the companions or comitatus. • the Celtic languages were supplanted (e.g. ass, bannock, crag). * Christianity spread from two different directions: * In the 5th century St Patrick converted Ireland, in the 7th century the north of England was converted by Irish monks; * in the south at the end of the 6th century Aethelberht of Kent allowed the monk Augustine...
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