The World Is Too Much with Us
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 hours,And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers--For this, for everything, 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 forlorn;Have sight of Proteus, rising from the sea,Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Words in this poem
- spending n.
- The act of expending; expenditure. Spending money, money set apart for extra (not necessary) personal expenses; pocket money.
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The World Is Too Much with Us is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The World Is Too Much with Us, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-world-is-too-much-with-us.html, id L25323.
Form and metre
The World Is Too Much with Us is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDCDCD soonA · powersB · oursB · boonA · moonA · hoursB · flowersB · tuneA · beC · outwornD · leaC · forlornD · seaC · hornD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The world is too much with us; late and soon, | 10 | ·········· |
| Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; | 11 | /˘·/˘···//˘ |
| Little we see in Nature that is ours. | 11 | /˘···/˘··/˘ |
| We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! | 11 | ··//·˘/·/˘· |
| This sea, that bares her bosom to the moon, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The winds that will be howling at all hours, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers-- | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| For this, for everything, we are out of tune; | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Have sight of Proteus, rising from the sea, | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘··· |
| Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. | 10 | ···/˘···˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.