Analysis of The world is too much with us; late and soon

William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)



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 be
     A 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.


Scheme ABBAABBACACDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 0111111101 100101111010 10110101110 1110101010101 1111010101 01111101110 01110111010 1111011111 1111111101 01010011 1111011101 1101111101 111110101 111101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 672
Words 119
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 472
Words per stanza (avg) 116
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

36 sec read
504

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was the husband of Eva Bartok. more…

All William Wordsworth poems | William Wordsworth Books

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