The World Is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon

Many poets have written about nature. With the dangers of climate change, poets are eco-prophets and visionaries; the poems are eco-warnings, which we dismiss at our peril.

If you are wondering who is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, this is Dr. David Suzuki, a  scientist, teacher, broadcaster and environmentalist., who was 71 when this photograph was taken. As David Suzuki is Canadian, you will see that the proverbial fig leaf has been replaced in favour of a Canadian emblem, the maple leaf. I have not seen the 11th Hour but understand that you can find David Suzuki in the documentary.


This is a poem by the English poet, William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, called:

The World Is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bears her bossom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves up not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.