F‘The World is Too Much With Us’ Themes
Nature, Materialism and Loss
In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” the speaker describes humankind’s
relationship with the natural world in terms of loss. That relationship once
flourished, but now, due to the impacts of industrialization on everyday life,
humankind has lost the ability to appreciate, celebrate, and be soothed by
nature. To emphasize this central loss, the poem describes it from three angles:
economic, spiritual, and cultural. Notably, the poem does not suggest a way
to regain what is lost. Rather, its tone is desperate, arguing that humankind’s
original relationship with nature can never be revived.
The poem first presents loss in the economic sense, implicitly blaming urban
life for the change in people’s relationship with nature. Because the urban world
has “too much” control over our lives, we are always “late and soon” or
“Getting and spending.” Modern humans are always losing time or money. As
working people in an increasingly urban area, their lives are structured by a
never ending series of appointments and transactions.
This lifestyle comes at a price: it destroys our power to identify with nature, or
to appreciate the world around us. By focusing their “powers” on material
objects, people grow unaware of their wider, and arguably more important,
surroundings. The result is that nothing in nature—or elsewhere—is “ours.”
This is a world where everything—be it a house, stocks in a company, or a loaf
of bread—can be won or lost in an instant. By describing nature as something
that can be owned or possessed, the speaker may be implying that modern
human beings have lost the ability to think of relationships and emotions in
anything but economic terms.
The poem next dwells on spiritual loss, though without forgetting that loss’s
economic roots. “We have given our hearts away,” the speaker says. Though it
uses economic language—people give something away in exchange for
something else—this line adds another perspective to the depiction of loss. The
price of material gain and industrial progress is the human heart itself, a symbol
of life and emotion. In exchange, people receive a “boon”—that is, they gain
Nature, Materialism and Loss
In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” the speaker describes humankind’s
relationship with the natural world in terms of loss. That relationship once
flourished, but now, due to the impacts of industrialization on everyday life,
humankind has lost the ability to appreciate, celebrate, and be soothed by
nature. To emphasize this central loss, the poem describes it from three angles:
economic, spiritual, and cultural. Notably, the poem does not suggest a way
to regain what is lost. Rather, its tone is desperate, arguing that humankind’s
original relationship with nature can never be revived.
The poem first presents loss in the economic sense, implicitly blaming urban
life for the change in people’s relationship with nature. Because the urban world
has “too much” control over our lives, we are always “late and soon” or
“Getting and spending.” Modern humans are always losing time or money. As
working people in an increasingly urban area, their lives are structured by a
never ending series of appointments and transactions.
This lifestyle comes at a price: it destroys our power to identify with nature, or
to appreciate the world around us. By focusing their “powers” on material
objects, people grow unaware of their wider, and arguably more important,
surroundings. The result is that nothing in nature—or elsewhere—is “ours.”
This is a world where everything—be it a house, stocks in a company, or a loaf
of bread—can be won or lost in an instant. By describing nature as something
that can be owned or possessed, the speaker may be implying that modern
human beings have lost the ability to think of relationships and emotions in
anything but economic terms.
The poem next dwells on spiritual loss, though without forgetting that loss’s
economic roots. “We have given our hearts away,” the speaker says. Though it
uses economic language—people give something away in exchange for
something else—this line adds another perspective to the depiction of loss. The
price of material gain and industrial progress is the human heart itself, a symbol
of life and emotion. In exchange, people receive a “boon”—that is, they gain
