Poem Blog

For this blog, I chose to analyze themes of identity and culture present in William Wordsworth's poem "TheWorld Is Too Much with Us." Wordsworth and his worlds are often associated with Romanticism, the artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and continued to remain a prominent alternative to Enlightenment ideals and beliefs well into the 19th century until about 1850. Romanticism grew out of many European intellectuals' disapproval of trends in urban development and industrialization brought on by the Industrial Revolution as well as their contempt of Enlightenment principles in rationalizing nature through scientific means. Emphasizing artistic originality through the expression of one's own feelings, Romanticists also often placed great importance in the preservation of nature, as Wordsworth clearly demonstrates in his poem "The World Is Too Much with Us." In the poem, Wordsworth criticizes contemporary society for its superficial focus on materialism and technological/scientific development at the expense of its connection to nature, with which it has shared a close bond for millennia. There are many instances within the poem in which Wordsworth's central message becomes clear; however, I believe the following three lines are most effective in communicating this theme: 1) "The world is too much with us; late and soon," 2) "Little we see in Nature that is ours," and 3) "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" In these quotations, the speaker , who may be Wordsworth himself, laments the fact that humanity is losing its bond to nature as a result of its increasing dependency on machines and technology produced during the Industrial Age. As I mentioned before, the views of nature expressed within this poem are characteristic of Romanticism, an identity/culture that spawned the later origination of the Transcendentalist Movement. The cultural legacy of Romanticism lives on even today in the modern Environmentalist Movement.

I also chose to analyze "The Powwow at the End of the Word" by Sherman Alexie as my second poem for this blog. I selected this poem for its striking resemblance to "The World Is Too Much with Us," that, in terms of its underlying themes concerning nature. Like "the World Is Too Much with Us," Alexie's "The Powwow at the End of the World" admonishes humankind for its current sordid relationship to nature. However, the way in which the two poems criticize humanity's current relationship to nature is inherently different. While Wordsworth focuses on people's abandonment of nature for technology, Alexie concentrates on criticizing people's mistreatment of nature such as (in the context of the poem) through the construction of dams that may benefit people in the short run, but may ultimately prove detrimental to people in the long run by harming the surrounding environment. The two poems may be different in focus, yet their implications remain the same" Society is gradually destroying the environment that is has depended on since the advent of civilization.