March 28, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Steven Green says the world
Steven Green says the world is too much with him, but can't remember from whence cometh the quote. Well, the recovering lit major's always up for a good game of "name that quote", so here it is, from Wordsworth, not one of my favorite poets, but it's among his best work:
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-gathered 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.