As one of the poets who outlined the principles of Romantic poetry, Wordsworth believed that the ruin of mankind came as a result of their constant deprivation of natural elements in their lives. In fact, these two works present a clear exaltation of nature as the missing part of a complete existence. On one hand, The World Is Too Much With Us depicts human beings as abusive creatures who, incapable of appraising the value of the sea or the wind, eternally waste their energies in helpless efforts to conquer the world. On the other hand, London, 1802 compares the missing figure of John Milton to the lack of value Englishmen gave to nature, giving him the status of a natural element (a star, the sea, heaven), and reassuring that human potential had lost that ultimate optimism given by the deceased poet in his Paradise Lost. Aside from that, and being an enemy of science as most romantics were, Wordsworth rejects all anti-religious forms of explanation to the universe. For him, God is represented in nature, and all damage made against her is made against Him. Under this premise, he rather prefers being “a pagan suckled in a creed outworn,” whose beliefs give refuge to a numb sense of life, than a part of the careless “fen of stagnant waters” he lives in. These two poems reflect how he wanted to isolate himself from the destructive masses, and try to go back to the original state of goodness in which we all were (and are) born, prior to the contamination of society.
As one of the poets who outlined the principles of Romantic poetry, Wordsworth believed that the ruin of mankind came as a result of their constant deprivation of natural elements in their lives. In fact, these two works present a clear exaltation of nature as the missing part of a complete existence. On one hand, The World Is Too Much With Us depicts human beings as abusive creatures who, incapable of appraising the value of the sea or the wind, eternally waste their energies in helpless efforts to conquer the world. On the other hand, London, 1802 compares the missing figure of John Milton to the lack of value Englishmen gave to nature, giving him the status of a natural element (a star, the sea, heaven), and reassuring that human potential had lost that ultimate optimism given by the deceased poet in his Paradise Lost. Aside from that, and being an enemy of science as most romantics were, Wordsworth rejects all anti-religious forms of explanation to the universe. For him, God is represented in nature, and all damage made against her is made against Him. Under this premise, he rather prefers being “a pagan suckled in a creed outworn,” whose beliefs give refuge to a numb sense of life, than a part of the careless “fen of stagnant waters” he lives in. These two poems reflect how he wanted to isolate himself from the destructive masses, and try to go back to the original state of goodness in which we all were (and are) born, prior to the contamination of society.
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