Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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“The World Is Too Much With Us” – 14 May 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

It’s such a beautiful day today! Down by the lake, our lilacs are in bloom and their perfume fills the air. I wonder if it was a day like this that inspired William Wordsworth, who lived in England’s Lake Country, to write his poems about nature. From what I’ve read about him, he was a “searcher,” too. Toward the end of his life, he was appointed Poet Laureate and became conservative, both religiously and politically.

The World Is Too Much With Us
By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

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 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,
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 wreathèd horn.

See also:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetrydir.html

Go on to: Back to the Farm Market – 15 May 2007
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