Theme of Nature in William Wordsworth`s Poems

William Wordsworth had an unfortunate childhood that would prove to be a driving force in his success with poetry. Born in 1770 into a good family no one would expect his life to be as rough as it was. When Wordsworth was only eight years old his mother passed away, and by the time he was thirteen his father passed also, leaving him orphaned. Wordsworth stated that his rough childhood was what brought him to love nature beginning with the Lake District, which he said touched his life.

When Wordsworth was seventeen, and now in college he published his first poem. His first poem was received well, but no one could of predicted how successful he would become as a poet, and a leader.

Wordsworth’s career continued to grow successfully, but his personal life continued to become more difficult as he wasn’t able to see his daughter for nine years after she was born due to a war between France and England.

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Wordsworth paid for his daughters education, but never married her mother, instead he married Mary Hutchinson when he was now thirty-two years old. His personal life was mostly good for the rest of his life, but his career life was extremely successful even after his death in 1850. His listed reason for death was old age, and he died on April 23rd which coincidentally is the same day that the arguably most well known poet of all time died, William Shakespeare.

Wordsworth had many extraordinary poems that will be read, and studied for eternity, but arguably his best is “The World is too Much with Us”.

Wordsworth begins the poem with a strong, and powerful tone about how society has turned away from nature, and the beauty that is within nature. He claims that everyone is obsessed with material objects, and money more than anything. Due to everyone wanting material objects everyone goes to work to make money then spends their money and it’s a vicious cycle they live in, never taking the time to observe the beauty of the world. He continues on in the poem using a soft and gentle mood using words like “sleeping flower”.

Again he points to society being too oblivious of nature’s beauty, and that society, and nature are not at peace like they used to be. He goes on saying that people don’t care about nature, and that he is sad by this. Even mentioning God by saying “Great God!”, and saying he’d rather be pagan than without nature. By this it seems he believes not even religion can stop people from becoming so materialistic. Wordsworth ends the poem by restating that he wants to see society love nature like they used to. He brings up Proteus a Greek mythological being who is said to take on many shapes, and knows all. showing that Wordsworth knows that society will not change, and that he believes if they don’t they will be punished for ignoring nature.

Wordsworth has gone down in history as an amazing poet, and some would even classify him a legend. He will always be remembered which is a goal for many people, and many fail to accomplish this, so the title legend for Wordsworth is earned. His works are genius, and his groundwork for many other poets, and future poets will keep his legacy alive forever. William Wordsworth is extremely successful, and is arguably one of the greatest poets of all time.