The World is too much with us By William Wordsworth And The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William butler yeats


COMPARE AND CONTRAST FOR ME PLEASE

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2005 11:37PM by lg.

Here's a copy of Yeats' poem, since it isn't in our archive:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

-- William Butler Yeats

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2005 10:47AM by Desi.

here's the world is too much with us, including some vocab notes.
[www.wsu.edu:8080] />
here the text.

"The world is too much with us"

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, 5
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,— 10
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 wreathèd horn.

First of all, people are very happy to help here, generally speaking, but we do not want to do it For you. For me, housework times are happily behind me :-)

Compare:
- both poems talk about nature (idealize nature?)
- both have a first-person narrator
- both poems rhyme
- both are "escapist poems"

contrast:
- Wordsworth poem is a sonnet, yeats' poem is not
- Wordsworth "escapes" to the past (in earlier times, nature still made an impression), whereas Yeats goes "elsewhere".

your turn

Les, unless Yeats put out different versions of The Lake Isle, I believe there are two corrections needed.

Should be 'evening' in line 4 of the second stanza, and 'hear lake water' in line 2 of the third stanza.

You're correct. I checked it against a paper copy in one of my schoolbooks (used at university). I edited the poem.

If 'compare' means find similarities, you can say that both poems express awareness of nature, while using very different images of it.

WBY's poem is a celebration. His speaker describes some beautiful features of a lake at various times of night and day. He says that even in his urban environment ('on the roadway, or on the pavements gray') he constantly hears the lake sounds in his heart. He has decided to return to the lake and build a small rustic cottage there on an island (named Innisfree) where he can live alone and undisturbed among the bees and the birds. The whole poem implies delight at the prospect.

In contrast WW's poem is a lament. His speaker can’t enjoy nature even when standing in the midst of it, i.e. on a grassy area ('lea') by the sea. He says that mankind, or perhaps just he (if you interpret 'we' as meaning the speaker), has become too preoccupied with commerce - earning and spending - to retain any interest in nature. As an example, he says he no longer takes notice of a moonlit seascape or the wild night wind. He feels out of tune with such things. Unlike WBY’s speaker, he doesn’t mention any plan to try to improve his situation. He doesn’t escape to anywhere or anything. He just wishes futilely that he had been brought up as a pagan, believing in the ancient Roman/Greek sea deities Proteus and Triton, so that he might have been able to imagine seeing or hearing them, and so feel less sad and lonely ('forlorn'), when looking at the sea.

So one contrast here is between different responses to unsatisfactory life circumstances. One speaker is taking action to move to somewhere happier; the other is stuck in complaint mode, finding elaborate but useless excuses for staying that way.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2005 11:27PM by IanB.

Thanks, Ian, I appreciate the info. There is much info. on the internet, unfortunately it's not all good.


Les

I need help with two poems: my assignment is to compare and contrast two poems from the first three chapters of Making Arguments about Literature (John Schilb/John CLifford) In my comparison it is hard to determine which two would correlate. Has any one had a similar assignment? HELP

Here are the poems listed in the first 3 chapters, Chapter One is an introductory with no poems cited:

2. Developing Arguments about Literature

    Responding to Four Poems about Work

       William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper

       Stephen Dunn, Hard Work

       Dorianne Laux, What I Wouldn't Do

       Maura Stanton, Shoplifters

    The Elements of Argument

       Issues / Claims / Persuasion /Audience / Evidence / Warrants

    Literature as Argument

       John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent

    Investigating Topics of Literary Criticism

       Lynda Hull, Night Waitress

    SUMMING UP

    

  3. Writing an Argument

       William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper

    Exploring

    Planning

    Composing

    Title / Style / Introduction / Development / Emphasis / Conclusion /

    Further Suggestions for Developing an Argument about a Work of Literature

    Sample Student Paper: First Draft

       Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in "The Solitary Reaper"

    Revising

    Recognizing and Avoiding Fallacies / Logic / Organization / Clarity /

    Emphasis / Style / Grammar / Physical Appearance

    Sample Student Paper: Revised Draft

       Abby Hazelton, The Passage of Time in "The Solitary Reaper"

    Writing a Comparative Paper

    Ted Kooser, Four Secretaries

    Sample Comparative Paper

    Marla Tracy, When Singing Is Not Singing

    SUMMING UP  

In my comparison it is hard to determine which two would correlate.

Maybe I am missing something, but aren't they all about work?

Responding to Four Poems about Work

William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
Stephen Dunn, Hard Work
Dorianne Laux, What I Wouldn't Do
Maura Stanton, Shoplifters