The World Is Too Much with Us

¹The world is too much with us; late and soon,

²Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

³Little we see in Nature that is ours;

⁴We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

⁵This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

⁶The winds that will be howling at all hours,

⁷And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

⁸For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

⁹It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be

¹⁰A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

¹¹So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

¹²Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

¹³Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

¹⁴Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.