After reading the poem
“The World is too much with us,” I started reflecting on my experiences with
nature and the city. I could admit that I enjoy the city more than I enjoy
nature. The reason for this is because I am so used to living in a corporate
environment that I forget that nature exists. For 17 years, I lived near Los
Angeles where there is no sign of the sublime. All I would see were
skyscrapers, lights, and madness (nonstop traffic). I was sucked into the world
of time and money. At age 18, I moved to Washington where everything is what I
call nature. All I see here are mountains and sceneries. Here in Washington, I
actually take time to view the sunset and the lakes that are surrounded by
mountains. Back in California, I was more focused on the “lights and cameras”
and I never thought about the sunset. My experiences are compatible with the
poem “The World is too much with us” because the speaker in the poem complains
about the world being too overwhelming for us to appreciate. In some sense, I
agree because as you can tell, I do not appreciate nature as much as I do the
city.
The speaker in the poem
says that we are too concerned with time and money that we use up all our
energy worrying about it. I thought this was interesting because nothing has
really changed from the time the poem was written (around 1806) and nowadays.
We still experience the same effect that time and money had in the poem. There
is a saying “time is money” and it is the motto for most businesses and for
college students—at least for me it is. When it comes to studying, I say “time
is money” because I don’t want to waste any time on something useless when I
could use that time to study. The poem’s title, “The World is too much with us”
is basically saying that the world has gotten too big for us (humans) to
handle. Everything is getting bigger; from Big Macs to building to shopping
malls. These “bigger” things enable us (humans) to spend and get as much things
as possible. Our world revolves around materialistic objects—I don’t care what
anyone says. I think that it would be
interesting to hear what the author, William Wordsworth, would have to say
about our world now if he were thrown in a big city such as New York. What will
people say in 100 years?
Ivan, I think the experiences you talk about here perfectly encapsulate what Wordsworth is talking about in the poem.
ReplyDeleteIvan, great analysis of the poem as well as connecting your experience with the poem. Having said that, it helps me better understand the poem in that I have an example of the poem applied to your life. I feel like this poem especially requires us to reflect on how we see their world and our interactions with each other. As I read the poem, I thought a lot about what I valued and how I perceive the world. Taking a moment to reflect I find really beneficial. Throughout my life, I have lived in 5 different states: California, New Mexico, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington. The environment in each of these states is vastly different—it ranges from the ocean to desert to heavily wooded areas. I’ve found that the wide, open desert is better for my imagination in that I don’t feel trapped or overwhelmed by nature. In Arizona, however, there are these enormous mountains that are extremely breathtaking. These mountains reminded me that there’s more to life than what I see—there’s everything around me.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I agree with your opinion that this world is heavily driven through materialism because we are a society based on money. If you have a chance, you should check out “The Story of Stuff” on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0). This video makes me rethink what I spend money on and where my items come from.