The World Is Too Much with Us

Wordsworth adopts the structure of the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet in “The World Is Too Much With Us.” The poem contains 14 lines, separated into one octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), with an abba abba cdcdcd rhyme scheme, and the poem maintains a consistent iambic pentameter. True to the form of the Petrarchan sonnet, “The World Is Too Much With Us” also contains a volta or “turn” on the ninth line. In typical Petrarchan sonnets, the ninth line of verse between the octave and sestet is a volta, a moment in which the building conflict turns into some kind of resolution. Here, Wordsworth leaves off his grim observations of society and the forgotten natural world and tries to find a solution in ancient, pagan religion.

The choice to compose “The World Is Too Much With Us” with the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, a form that was invariably used for love poetry, reflects the tone of the poem itself. The sonnet essentially acts as a love poem from Wordsworth towards nature. Like a Petrarchan poet, Wordsworth describes how the object of his affections, the sea, bares her breast and chastises the people who have given their hearts away to a different lover.