Samuel Conroy
Professor Comstock
September 8, 2020
Rhetoric of Travel
Wordsworth Theme Progymnasmata
William Wordsworth, one of the greatest poets in history, describes his disappointment with the modern world through his poem, “The World is Too much With Us.” During Wordsworth’s time, the world was undergoing a mass transition due to the industrial revolution taking place. The world was moving away from nature and becoming entrenched in material items being produced by the revolution. Wordsworth uses a sonnet system in iambic pentameter to lay out his frustrations. His vexations can be heard through,
“Little we see that nature is ours; We have given our hearts away” (Wordsworth 3-4).
Wordsworth drives the theme of communion with nature, which he does in many of his poems to express his annoyance with the current times. His use of rhetoric through theme is brilliantly done throughout this poem allowing him to engage the reader with his line of thought and lay out his emotions in an effective manner.