The Evils of Materialism

Wordsworth uses the first octet of his Petrarchan sonnet to explore the ways in which rampant materialism in the modern era has lead to the degradation of humanity.

The speaker’s pointed criticism of materialism begins in the very first line and title of the poem with the phrase “the world is too much with us” (1). This line can be interpreted in two different ways. One way, the more obvious of the two, suggests that we, being humanity, have too great an impact on the world as our desires for more, or “too much,” add more to the world than it can reasonably bear (1). As a result, humanity creates an instability as a result of its need for growing material wealth. The second interpretation, however, centers on the use of the word “world” as opposed to “earth” (1). To say “the world is too...