19 pages • 38 minutes read
William WordsworthThe World Is Too Much with Us
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1807A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Triton
Near the end of the sonnet, Wordsworth uses an allusion to the Greek gods Proteus and Triton to describe the sea. In the ancient Greek religion, both gods were associated with the sea. Triton was the son of the chief sea god Poseidon and his wife Amphitrite, a sea goddess herself, and he was believed to have lived in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. Greek art and writings often depicted Triton as a merman wielding a large seashell that doubled as a trumpet. Triton came to be known as the messenger and herald of his father Poseidon, for which purpose he used his horn. Thus, for Wordsworth, the sound of Triton’s horn implies that there is some meaning or message being communicated. To describe the sound of the sea as Triton’s horn reflects Wordsworth’s own desire to be instructed and guided by nature.
Proteus
Proteus has a more complicated and obscure history in Greek myth, with many accounts portraying him quite differently. However, in most depictions, Proteus is a primordial sea god with the gift of prophecy and ability to see all events past, present, and future. He also possesses the ability to change shape, and anyone who wished to hear about the future would have to find a way to capture him first. By invoking the shape-shifting Proteus in his description of the sea, Wordsworth characterizes the sea with a certain sense of mutability and potential to change, but he also lends the sea a feeling of ancient and established power. The name Proteus means “the first,” and because of his ability to change shapes and assume different forms, Proteus came to symbolize the original matter that comprised the world. In using Proteus to represent the sea, Wordsworth demonstrates that the sea and more generally nature are ancient, semi-divine entities that were here before humankind and will still be here after humankind is finished.
Nature
Capitalized in “The World Is Too Much With Us” and many of Wordsworth’s other poems, including “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “The Tables Turned,” nature occupies the role of a divine figure within Wordsworth’s poetry. In each poem, Wordsworth looks to nature for guidance and a way to understand and cope with the world around him. Nature is able to soothe and influence Wordsworth, even when it is only a memory he considers while alone. In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” Wordsworth regrets that there is “little” in “Nature that is ours” (Line 3) and that nature has imparted so little of its wisdom to humanity. In the poem, Wordsworth sees nature as a thing to be desperately sought after and its knowledge a thing to be possessed.
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By William Wordsworth
