The World Is Too Much with Us

Shortly before and throughout Wordsworth’s career as a poet, England was the scene of an immense economic and cultural shift that would forever alter its citizens’ way of life. Spanning from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, the First Industrial Revolution fundamentally altered the landscape and lifestyle of English people and later spread to other countries like the United States and France. The Industrial Revolution saw the development of new technology like the spinning jenny, which greatly assisted textile manufacturers, and the steam powered locomotive, which accelerated transportation and made trade between different cities and even countries much more efficient. There was an increased demand for labor in coal mining to support these new locomotives and a newly developed railroad system, and as a result of these sudden economic changes, England began a period of rapid urbanization. English citizens left their rural homes in droves in order to find work in major cities where manufacturing was booming.

While the Industrial Revolution greatly improved England’s economy and saw the rise of a more powerful working middle class, not all of its changes were for the best. The rapidly increasing population of cities meant overcrowding, pollution, and a lack of clean water, and lower-class workers in the new factories were seldom paid enough to survive in their new living situations.