First Poetry Post

William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us” uses allusions, rhyme scheme, and broken syntax to show the struggles people face during life. The use of juxtaposition between the “howling winds” that are “now like sleeping flowers” shows how quickly moments in life can pass you by. The broken syntax, as almost each line ends with a colon and not a period, shows emphasizes the examples the speaker mentions and shows that the speaker struggles with the issues he is writing about. The rhyme scheme (“powers” and “ours”, “moon” and “boon”) works to connect the various examples and allusions the author uses in the poem. This struggle of the main purposes of life is also brought up in the poem “Heritage” by Countee Cullen. Similar to “The World is Too Much With Us”, “Heritage” uses a rhyme scheme in majority of the poem. This device is used to tie together the piece together as it does touch on many different topics. Cullen also chooses to personify many elements of nature; for example, “no flowers near”, almost giving the flowers the ability to creep near the scene. This personification shows readers that the speaker values the idea of nature and what it has to offer. This is very similar to the feelings used by Woodsworth. Nature, for the authors, can serve a vital role in a person’s development. Cullen’s poem seems very connected to her person, her experiences, whereas Wordsworth’s piece focuses on a large scale and is written to relate to many people. One way that Woodsworth shows this detachment is through the use of aged allusions that are pretty universal. Cullen starts the poem with clear imagery of a specific place the way that she saw it. Though both methods effective, they both portray a different scale of closeness for the author and reader. Overall, both poems used similar devices to ask readers to question many larger questions in life, but both definitely have different tones. Wordsworth’s is very disconnected whereas Cullen’s is very personal. Their different examples mirror this difference, ancient allusion for Wordsworth and modern interpretation of nature for Cullen.