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 bares her bosom 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 us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; (1)

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, (2)

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus (3) rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton (4) blow his wreathed horn.

(1) Brought up in an outdated religion.

(3) Greek sea god capable of taking many shapes.

(4) Another sea god, often depicted as trumpeting on a shell.

Angrily, the speaker accuses the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and to everything meaningful: "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!" He says that even when the sea "bares her bosom to the moon" and the winds howl, humanity is still out of tune, and

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

The modern men are forfeiting their souls by being insensitive to the richness of Nature

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

Wordsworth was keen enough to discern the way people improve their lives in order to give benefit society, but not without taking a high toll on the environment. This is reflected on how “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”; the way people today blindly and selfishly seek personal fulfillment without taking into account who or what gets in the way.

Some topics in this essay:
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