The World Is Too Much With Us
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
1807
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 upgathered
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 wreathèd horn.
NOTE:
"The World Is Too Much with Us" is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it, Wordsworth criticizes the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature.
“In-Class” Writing Prompt: Monday, October 12th:
In a topic-driven, well-developed paragraph, make a connection between the “glass half empty” critics of the technology that has birthed social media and Wordsworth’s concerns about the human cost of the First Industrial Revolution. Be specific. Reference Carr and at least one other critic in your response.
NOTE: After posting on the blog, open up the CANVAS assignment (by the same name) and DO copy and paste the URL address into the CANVAS "WEB URL" text box so that I have record of your submission on Canvas. Thanks.
Carter Groomes
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
The World Is Too Much With Us
In the Poem “The World Is Too Much With Us”, by William Wordsworth expands on how the people of his time were too caught up with the world and the things of the world. This is so because of the new inventions and in awe of the new wonders of the first industrial revolution. Wordsworth says, “Little we in Nature that is Ours”. In this line of his poem he directs the attention to Nature and how the humans then were drifting far away from it. This reflects the work by Nicolas Carr, The Shallows, and how technology is pushing us away from our roots of non-technology. Although Carr says that technology is teaching our brains to function differently, he points out the positives such as the convenience it offers, how much easier we understand the text, and how we as the youth respond to it.
Breanna Roper
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
Glass Half Empty
In William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much with Us", Wordsworth states that he would rather be pagan than indulge himself in the industrializing world around him, which in that time was a huge deal, highly offensive and very frowned on, which shows the authors unhappiness with the world he is living in. People are gathering materialistic interests and becoming superficial, not only in Wordsworth's era, but in the present area. Now, however, society is using other products, such as the internet, computers, and cell phones. They are changing the way we think, according to Carr. He feels that our intelligence is declining rapidly, and that we can no longer concentrate on things with importance, even if we try. Sherry Turkle has a similar view on this, a "glass half empty" view on things, so to speak. She says that our language is beginning to change due to the use of cellphones and texting, we even develop skills around texting. One such as sending a text message while making direct eye contact with someone you are with. People are losing touch with others and our losing their ability to truly connect or relate with other people. Wordsworth was also living in a time where people failed to realize the importance of forming connections with actual humans. This technological takeover is not just now occurring, though, it has been evolving for hundreds of years.
Austin Bennett
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
The world is too much with technology
In William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much with Us", Wordsworth makes his point very clear and serious by stating "...Great God! I’d rather be/
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;:" which is a big deal. As Wordsworth doesn't like industrialization, some people feel the same about modern technologies, such as smartphones and so on. Carr is guilty of this. These people take on a "Glass half empty" point of view of technology where they choose to see mainly the bad. Douglas adams puts it perfectly in the article we read;"1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."(Adams). This quote and rules are very applicable to how a lot of the authors we've read feel towards technology in general. Carr makes the argument that the tool changes us not only during the use of it, but also in our continued thought. This is what Wordsworth is worried about.
Gabrielle Tallman
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENG 1003
15 October 2015
The World Is Too Much With Us
The "glass half empty" critics of technology, such as Carr and Franzen, say that technology affects us in a negative way. William Wordsworth writes in his poem, "The World Is Too Much With Us", his concerns about the First Industrial Revolution. He says that, "...we lay waste our powers..." which is very similar to Carr's argument that we are losing our human capabilities, like memory, if we don't exercise them. He calls this the "numbing effect". The infamous Wordsworth also writes how, "We have given our hearts away" which is similar to Franzen's thought that devoting oneself to be liked sacrifices a lot and that technology troubles love. William Wordsworth was obviously frightened about the human cost and it is amazing to see that modern writers have the same fear.
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ReplyDeletePeter Cote
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 Oct. 2015
The World Is Too Much With Us Connection
William Wordsworth looks at people seeing them as abandoning the world and losing the ability to see what the world has to offer. Wordsworth states that “Little we see in Nature that is ours.” He shows that people are abandoning the roots of a Nature loving society to be more to themselves. Like Wordsworth, Nicholas Carr explains that people are losing the ability to think deeply about different things that happen because they are going towards technology. Sherry Turkle also expresses her thoughts and feelings about technology by saying it controls everyday life and people cannot live without it. Carr and Turkle explain that society today revolves around the internet and technology. Jonathan Franzen also shows that, like Turkle and Carr, technologies advancement has caused people to veer away from the path of self-reflection to a path of fast paced information. Wordsworth hits on the point similar to Carr, Franzen, and Turkle talking about how people do not care anymore about the world and only care about themselves looking at technology as a “glass half empty.”
Devante Wrenn
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
Poem
In the poem the poet talks about how we waste too much of our powers and how we use what little is ours. The poem seems like it refers to what we do in life and that is waste time on technology. We spend a lot of time on technology such as computers. We don’t think for ourselves. We would rather rely on other people information and not take what we know. This shrinks our thought of mind and now we think little in life.
Hunter Hebert
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
The World Is Too Much With Us Connection
In William Wordsworth’s The World is Too Much With Us, the idea that we are wasting and throwing away our lives and opportunities for small-minded, temporary pleasures is presented. In the poem, it says “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”, referring to the mindset of people today and how we crave a fast-paced, constant changing and stimulating environment all the while forgetting about the outside world of the internet and losing the incredible abilities of our minds. Nicholas Carr makes many references to this trend in his book The Shallows, stating that “Our brains turn into simple signal-processing units, quickly shepherding information into consciousness and then back out again.” (119). We have over time lost our ability to deeply analyze the world, minimizing our thoughts to YouTube videos and pointless Facebook statuses. Both the works of Wordsworth and Carr expose the reality that is we, as humans, are so consumed and controlled by distractions, specifically technology in today’s world, that we are halting the growth of man-kind; stunting our ability to blossom.
Logan Radwanski
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English 1003
15 October 2015
"The World Is Too Much With Us"
William Wordsworth wrote his poem “The World Is Too Much With Us” because wasn’t happy with the change that was happening around him thanks to the Industrial Revolution. He probably would’ve been considered a Luddite, someone who protested Industrialization, as they feared the lost handcraftsmanship for he expressed “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…” in his poem. Also losing the skills and the heart people put into their work going along with Carr and Franzen who spoke about how we lose skills with our usage of technology and expression of emotion. “…the world of techno-consumerism is therefore troubled by real love, and that it has no choice but to trouble love in turn.” (Franzen) a worry of Franzen as technology has come into conflict with how people interact and express feelings with one another which Wordsworth also expresses “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” the same concern. The most common one is losing skills that were once second nature to us but thanks to technology are harder to recall. Carr explains and give scientific evidence throughout his book, The Shallows, how our circuits for old skills weaken and become hard to recall. Wordsworth felt this same problem coming along due to Industrialization as the historical definition of the Industrialization Revolution is: the change from goods being created by hand shifting to being made by machines and in large factories.
Anna Newton
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
October 15 2015
The World is too Much With Us Connection
In William Wordsworth's The World Is Too Much With Us, he is saying that today's society waste time on the materialistic things, and does not spend enough time with nature. Carr and Turkle agree with this statement. Contrasting Carr and Turkle's writing with Wordsworth's writing it plays out the same, but he is not as specific with it. Wordworth is basically stating Carr's opinioins but does not use the example of technology.
Kaylee Young
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
15 October 2015
The World Is To Much With Us Connection
In the poem, “The World it too much in us,” Wordsworth expresses his opinions on the industrial revolution of his time. He is not happy with what is happening in the world around him. He says, “Little we see in nature that is ours,” where he is explaining how all he sees around him are new advances such as industries. The advances of industrialism are all the same as the advances in technology Carr and Turkle discuss today. All around us in both time periods, are worlds with newer man made things appearing. However, Wordsworth sees it as a bad thing, a “sordid boon.” He is very unsupportive and against it, and later on in the poem lists exaggerations that he might as well see that would make the situation of industrialism better. In the “Shallows,” Carr expresses the glass half empty scenario which agrees with Wordsworth that technology advances are somewhat a disadvantage to regular society ways.
Aidan Bish
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
SWU English 1003
15 October 2015
Connection between Wordsworth, Carr, and Turkle
Woodsworth, and English Romantic poet, detailed his concerns about the way the Industrial Revolution drove people away from nature and towards materialism and faster-paced technolgies. Immediately, I am reminded of Carr’s continued use of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s account of his time in a sleepy hollow as an illustration of the way that technology takes the place of deep thinking. Hawthorne was in a peaceful state of deep thinking as he sat surrounded by nature and silence, when suddenly the sound of a train whistle shattered his state of mind. Turkle emphasizes today’s similar affliction; we replace peace and real relationships with technology out of ease, convenience, and an inability to be unoccupied or alone. The theme carries, then, all the way from 1807 through the introduction of computers to today. However, now we are not only distancing ourselves from nature (something Carr remarks on as well, as peace is necessary to thought, but also from each other. This, an assertion by Turkle that I very much agree with, is even more dangerous. We lose some of our humanity when we lose the unique ability to contemplate peacefully, but we lose almost all of it when we lose each other.
Trevor Porter
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
English 1003
October 15, 2015
The World is too Much With Us
In Wordsworth's poem he is talking about how people were changing their lives as time passed and things around them changed as well. He talks about, "Getting and Spending" like its all people seemed to be doing. Life always revolved around one thing. This can be similar to the way technology is changing our lives today. People are becoming more and more attatched and more and more dempendent of our phones.