William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us" is a Romantic Sonnet that can be broken into two parts. The speaker tells us in the first part that we have lost our connection with nature, and that that connection was one of our most important relationships. The speaker the goes on to tell us that that he is willing to sacrifice everything to recover this relationship, and begins on line 9. In romantic poems, the speaker tries to convince us of our flaws, in this case our skewed relationship with nature, and convince us to change our ways. The speaker in Wordsworth's poem is no different in this respect, and utilizes shock to grab our attention and really get us to notice just how serious he believes this problem is. Although he uses multiple types of shock in this poem, his willingness to reject the major religions of the day is clearly his most affective.
Wordsworth was one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in poetry, and his works became an outline for what Romanticism was all about. This movement was one that was trying to change society, and bring them back in touch with their feelings and nature. The Columbia Encyclopedia went as far as calling it, "revolt against the prescribed rules of classicism." This means that the romantic thinkers and poets were trying to convince their audience that their old ways were wrong because they neglected what was truly important, and get them to change their ways. As Rader put it, "In the richness of its values and range of its ideas this is a large poem, although it numbers only fourteen lines. It is what Matthew Arnold called 'a criticism of life'" (Rader 203). This means that "The World is Too Much With Us" is a very deep poem, criticizing the situation in which the speaker lives, and clearly trying to evoke a response. In order to do this, however, they first had to get them to pay attention to their arguments. This is one place that shock was found to be an important tool.
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