The World

By William Wordsworth

1770-1850

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-gather'd 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.

DayPoems Poem No. 487
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/487.html">The World by William Wordsworth</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

Poets  Poems