Chapter 6 Poetry- Identity and Culture

"The World Is Too Much with Us"

In this poem, William Wordsworth talks about how the modern world has lost its connection with nature. He argues that we, as a culture, "lay waste our powers", which is the capability to interact with nature in a productive and harmless way. He goes on to use the metaphor of "we are out of tune" to compare our culture to an instrument that doesn't sound quite right. The instrument has the ability to be in tune, but needs work to get to that point, just like we have the ability to have a better relationship with nature if we made more of an effort. Near the beginning of the poem, Wordsworth says, "Little we see in Nature that is ours;" He capitalizes the word nature to show his respect for it and to emphasize his argument that nature is of great importance to the Earth and that our culture needs to make a change in the way that we interact with and value it.

"Fern Hill"

I chose this second poem to go along with "The World Is Too Much with Us" because it seemed to share the subject of nature with the first. Although "Fern Hill" isn't just talking about nature, a good portion of the poem is dedicated to describing the setting and living things around the speaker. After reading the first poem that argues that we aren't connected to nature, it made this second poem seem more special and of greater value. However, "Fern Hill" is very appreciative of nature and the speaker seems to be strongly connected to it, which is contrary to what "The World Is Too Much with Us" argues.