The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth, 1807
Wordsworth’s sonnet lamenting that people are so caught up in getting and spending that they have lost touch with nature.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,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!This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;The Winds that will be howling at all hoursAnd are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;It moves us not—Great God! I’d rather beA Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlornHave sight of Proteus coming from the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.