Identity and Culture: Wordsworth and Handal

The poem "The World Is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth discusses the tragedy that is human materialism and estrangement from nature.  Its purpose is to show how our identity as a species has become centered on objects and wealth, where we should surround ourselves with the beauty of nature.  For instance, in the second and third lines, the speaker states, "we lay waste our powers:/ Little we see in Nature that is ours;" which first references our separation from the world.  We have wasted ourselves on other things, wasted our potential on material items when we could have put them to use in noticing what's around us.  Next, the speaker says that we have "given our hearts away," pledging ourselves to anything but nature.  This has become so much of our identity that most of us cannot see the beauty of nature anymore; we are "out of tune" with it.  The last reference to Proteus and Triton make nature seem ancient and majestic, something to be admired and worshiped.  Instead, humans spend time worrying about money and objects, which worries the speaker.
For my second poem, I selected "Caribe in Nueva York" by Nathalie Handal.  The reason I picked these two poems is because they both relate to feeling separate from nature, which I often feel.  I constantly tell people how much I want to go to school in the city because I'm a city person, simple as that.  However, I often forget that I'm going to miss nature and all things natural once I'm there; basically, it's not always something that's at the top of my "To Remember" List.  While the first poem speaks more about nature in general, the second poem speaks about a specific place in nature, a place that the speaker misses.  The first poem strives to show readers that one should remember the beauty of nature, while the second poem wants to tell the reader of the speaker's longing.  She misses "the Caribbean waters" and "the sun on [her] back."  It's a very specific longing, and I will probably be able to understand it more once I'm living in a city (hopefully, anyway).