Faith In Ancient Gods Of Nature example essay topic

In William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us", this poem heeds warning to his generation. This warning is that they are losing sight of what is actually important in this world: nature and God. To some people both of these are the same thing. ".. as if lacking appreciation for the natural gifts of God is not sin enough, we add to it the insult of pride for our rape of His land" (Wordsworth). With his words, Wordsworth makes this message perpetual and everlasting. William Wordsworth loved nature and based many of his poems on it.

He uses very strong diction to get his point and feelings across. This poem expresses Wordsworth's feeling about nature and religion containing a melodic rhythm (Wordsworth). Each line and each word were chosen very carefully to express his thoughts and feelings. His references to God and Greek Gods catch the reader's eye to find out why he connects God to nature (Gill). His soft tones and harsh words make the reader feel and see what the speaker does.

This relatively simple poem angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with the material and have lost touch with the spiritual and with nature. The first part, the octave, of 'The World Is Too Much with Us' begins with Wordsworth accusing the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and everything meaningful: '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' (Nicholas)! The idea that Wordsworth is trying to make clear, is that human beings (adults) are too preoccupied in the material value of things ('The world getting and spending' (1-2) ) and have lost their spiritual connection with Mother Nature (childhood). 'Little we see in Nature that is ours;' (3) Wordsworth is expressing that nature is not a commodity to be exploited by humans, but should coexist with humanity, and 'We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon' (4)! he pronounces that in our materialistic lifestyles, nothing is meaningful anymore. He says that even when the sea 'bares her bosom to the moon' (5) and the winds howl, humanity is still out of tune.

These lines (5-7) suggest that nature is helpless and unknown to the destruction man is doing. 'For this, for everything, we are out of tune;' (8) proposes that even in the spectacle of a storm, human beings (adults) look on uncaring ly implying that we, humans, don't realize the damage we are inflicting on helpless nature (Wordsworth). The symbolism created by the images and metaphors represent Wordsworth's deep passion about the conflict between nature and modern progress. Images and metaphors alluding to mankind's greed, nature's innocence, and the speaker's rejection of accepted principles all serve to illustrate the speaker's passion to save his generation (Gill). The final part, the sestet, Wordsworth wishes that he were a pagan (a heathen) raised according to a different vision of the world, so that, 'standing on this pleasant lea' (Nicholas), he might see images of ancient gods rising from the waves, a sight that would cheer him greatly. He wishes he had faith in ancient gods of nature to extract revenge on people.

Wordsworth imagines 'Proteus rising from the sea' (Nicholas), and Triton 'blowing his wreathed horn' (Nicholas). His dream of these ancient gods of the sea would save nature from man. Wordsworth, in the sestet, dramatically proposes an impossible personal solution to his problem-he wishes he could have been born and raised as a pagan, so he could still see ancient gods in the action of nature and thereby gain spiritual solace (Gill). His thunderous 'Great God' (9)! indicates the extremity of his wish. Coming away from this sestet, four things come to my mind: materialism, wastefulness, selfishness, and the lack of respect for life (i.e. prostitution, murder, abortion) (Gill). If you think about the time period that this was written and today, are these things not truer today than they were when they were written.

In today's culture are we not a society of using what you want and waste what you don't consume. The way in which this poem flows is Wordsworth's idea and view of life now, and his attempt to grasp his childhood memories of how he would like to live (Wordsworth). His understanding of life is best stated: as children grow older, the memory fades, and the magic of nature dies to them. But, through this poem, he is able to relive everything through his memories, and the thing that is most important to him, a pure communion with nature. Overall, I think the author is connecting how times have changed and the people just don't have faith left. In my opinion, I feel the writer is certainly the speaker.

I feel that his great love for nature and any harm that has and shall come to it has shown forth. He expresses negativity towards anything that does not se nature's beauty, utilizing this to show something needs to be done (Gill). He also expresses his religious beliefs of how God is connected to nature portraying greed and modernization for the worst.

Bibliography

Gill, Stephen. William Wordsworth: A Life (Oxford Lives S. ). New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Nicholas, Karen S. "The World is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth. Spring 2005.
Wordsworth, William. William Wordsworth: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics). New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.