My submission to creative writing course of Symbiosis- I

Preparatory Practices

What does the poet mean when he says, “The world is too much with us”?

“The world is so much with us” was written by William Wordsmith in the context of the industrial revolution. He was reflecting on the changes taking place in the contemporary English society. The increased industrialization and consumerism had left little time for the people to appreciate the beauty of the nature.

The word ‘world’ in the line ‘the world is too much with us’ refers to the city life. World here means the modern industrialized urban part of the world. It doesn’t include the natural world still untouched by urbanization. Hence a distinction is made by Wordsmith between the natural and man made world.

 When it is referred ‘too much with us’, it means that people are too occupied with city life. They waste their time in ‘getting things and spending money’. Consumerism has become the central theme of human existence.  ‘Too much with us’ can be literally be interpreted as being ‘excessive’ and ‘more than required’.

Hence ‘the world is too much with us’ means that people are spending too much time on materialistic world and the poet  is fed up with that. He wants the people to enjoy the beauty of the nature rather than wasting energy in buying and selling things.

Develop a prose piece around a similar theme

I think this will be my last day. I can see an evil cutting machine with its menacing sharp teeth smiling to devour a new prey. I see all the human-made things around me. I have seen this place change from a beautiful world to a human world. As the last standing tree of the area, I take a deep breath and close my eyes.

Things were different when I was young. There was a small lake here. It was surrounded by green meadow. And encircling the meadow were my family members and relatives. Across the lake just opposite to me, there were two huts made up of clay brick with thatched roofs. An old human couple lived in one of the huts. The other was occupied by their daughter. This female human lived with her husband and two young male kids.

Me and my family spent days sometimes sleeping, sometimes just sucking water and nutrients from ground, sometimes thinking. And humans were not so busy either. The two male humans spent their days on the side of lake. Most of times, they were fishing. The other times, they just lied on the meadow throwing smoke out of their mouths. The female humans spent their time inside the hut. The kid humans were the regular visitors on our side. They ran from here to there and played in our shade. There was mutual harmony. The humans, we trees, the meadow, the lake, different birds and animals admired each others’ rights and lived peacefully.    

I have always wondered about humans. Even in those days, ownership pleased them. Kid humans fought over fallen fruits. The couples fought over better huts. I think this is a disease. And it spread fast.

As I stand here, the last ‘non-human-made’ thing, in a jungle of concrete building amid moving smoke guzzling vehicles, virtually recalling my life, I can say with confidence that the work of this disease stands completed. It has wiped out everything.

While my family and relatives always took pride in giving things- be it fruits, shade, fresh air. The humans affected by ownership disease always thought of getting things – wood, meat etc. Their greed increased with time. In my lifetime I have seen the huts before me transforming to a small bricked colony and then to a multistory apartment. The lake changed to first a park and then to a vehicle parking space. The meadows have been replaced by shops and roads. My family no more exists. I survived because someone started the rumour that a stone at my roots can make the wishes fulfilled if fire was burned before it. Someone stole the stone few months ago and here I am staring at a cutting machine which had taken life of my family.

Few pieces of paper notes are being exchanged between the machine driving human and one another human. How important are these in a human’s life! They keep on making these notes and against them keep on amassing things. Many times these things are not at all required. Some knowledge about show-off is necessary for the other creatures of the God to survive against these humans.

I am tired of my lone existence. The planet is full of dead things. Its good that I am going to join my family in some other universe.

Give an interpretation of the poem based on an analysis of linguistic features of the poem

William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much With Us" is a lyric poem in the form of a sonnet. In English, there are two types of sonnets, the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean, both with fourteen lines. Wordsworth's poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. A Petrarchan sonnet consists of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme or problem, and the second stanza develops the theme or suggests a solution to the problem. The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet is as follows: 

First stanza (octave): abba, abba 

Second stanza (sestet): cde, cde or another combination such as cdc, cdc. In the case of Wordsworth's poem, the combination is cd, cd. cd.

The tone is angry, modulated with sarcasm. First, the poet scolds society for devoting all its energies to material enterprises and pleasures. He announces sarcastically that he would rather be a pagan; at least then he could appreciate nature through different eyes. 

Wordsworth presents the poem in first-person plural in the first eight lines and part of the ninth, using ‘we’, ours, and us. At the end of the ninth line, he switches to first-person singular, using ‘I’. Use of first-person plural enables Wordsworth to chastise the world without seeming preachy, for he is including himself in his preach. 

Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem- 

First one is alliteration which can be seen in following lines of the poem.

Line 1: The world is too much with us
Line 2: we lay waste our powers
Line 4: We have given our hearts away
Line 5: bares her bosom
Line 6: The winds that will be howling

Use of metaphor can be seen in line 4, “We have given our hearts away”, here comparison of hearts to attention or concern or to enthusiasm or life  is being made.

Use of oxymoron is in the phrase “sordid boon”.

Personification is also used to good effect in the line, “The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon”. Here, comparison of the sea to a woman and of the moon to a person who sees the woman is made.

"The World is too Much With Us" is obsessed with nature; in fact, the central complaint of the poem is that people are so consumed by consumerism that they are no longer moved by nature. The speaker describes humanity's alienation from nature as a kind of blindness; people no longer see any similarities between nature and humankind, nor do they see anything in nature that is worth their time. ( Refer line 3 : Little we see in nature that is ours)

Wordsworth has been successful in using all the linguistic tools to convey the central theme of the poem.

Make sentences with ‘too much’, ‘getting and spending’, ‘late and soon’, ‘giving our hearts away’ and ‘a sordid boon’

Too much – Too much sunlight hurts the eyes.

Getting and spending – Trade fair is an excellent time for getting and spending.

Late and soon – In the modern working environment, stress is with us, late and soon.

Giving our hearts away – The innings played by Tendulkar made us give our hearts away in appreciation.

A sordid boon – Black money proved to be a sordid boon for the real estate market.