After studying William Wordsworth in class, it is clear that his poetry has a recurring theme. This is the notion that humanity has become too concerned with materialistic desires and trends, and as a result we have lost our connection with the natural world. This is particularly evident in Wordsworth’s sonnet ‘The World is too much with us’ where we are told that “we lay and waste our powers” when we engage with material rather than nature. This poem was written in the 19th century, yet personally I feel it has even more relevance in a contemporary 21st century. As new materialistic objects are designed, and as technology advances, we continue to lose touch with nature more and more, and the spirituality and wisdom that comes from engaging with nature becomes less attainable.

A line that really stuck out to me in ‘The World is too much with us’ is when the persona says “little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon”. Here the persona is condemning society for not spending more of our time in Nature and not seeing it’s value, but rather focusing our energy on consumerist ideals. Wordsworth’s choice of words in “sordid boon” was interesting to me as this is an oxymoron. “Sordid” meaning immoral and dishonourable, and “boon” meaning something that is helpful and beneficial. Personally, I think that this contradiction alludes to the conflict between human potential being overridden by selfishness and greed. This notion profoundly applies to current society as many of us continue to waste our time with monotonous routine in order to reach shallow and superficial goals. Whilst I think that people can still learn from Wordsworth’s poetry, I wonder if the nature of society will ever really change.