Poetry-Reading Response

There are many times poetry leaves me in a state of confusion. Reading through I see words on a page with simply no meaning. Or perhaps my mere laziness when reading poetry blocks my mind from seeing the true beauty in it. I don’t want to wonder what the speaker is trying to tell me, for I much rather be told directly. I want to be told so directly that I know exactly what they were intending me to know—which unfortunately is not how poetry works. There were two poems in particular I grew fond of. For even when I felt the confusion of their words, I somehow found the meaning in them as well, interpreting their meanings to mirror the necessity I had for them in my life.

“This World is Too Much with us” by William Wordsworth quickly became one of my favorite poems. There is much worth in the few words used to compose this poem. It demands pondering and reflection of oneself, and the way we are living our lives, or rather wasting our lives. We often fail to appreciate all the life that is taking place around us, as “we lay waste our powers” (2). I found this small phrase to have great meaning. When hearing the word “power”, the thought of something so unique and extraordinary comes to mind. Wordsworth believes that a person’s life is just that—unique and extraordinary. Life is not obtained by all; some lives are shorter than others, some lives have already unfortunately ended, but the reader will always be alive. Life is a precious thing, and Wordsworth emphasizes for our lives to be used in such a way, for by under appreciating the world around us, “we have given our hearts away” (4). Wordsworth uses this expression to show that the generation he is addressing has given their hearts away to the things that do not matter, becoming “out of tune” with their beautiful surroundings (8). Though this poem was written in the early 1800’s, I found it very much applicable to the generation of today as well. The speaker is expressing the lack of humanity’s inability to appreciate nature, when today the same could be applied. Though the beauty in nature is not commonly observed in the time we live in, humanity seems to still be oblivious of the importance in this life we are living.

As Wordsworth emphasized reflection of the beauty taking place around us, Walt Whitman’s poem “To You” encourages us to see the beauty that is within ourselves. At the start of the poem, Whitman is addressing the poem to “Whoever you are” (1), meaning his audience us. I found it interesting in that though I am a distinctly different person from the rest of the world, this poem is addressed to both me and anyone else. Whitman’s purpose of this poem is to encourage and uplift. He wants us to see in ourselves what he claims to see in us. The reader is aware that it is impossible to literally see those qualities in us, for he does not know us or to whom he is writing, but is rather implying that every person has these qualities and characteristics, both “old or young, male or female”(45). He sees something glorious in everyone and he simply wishes that we see it in ourselves, for when we do we will do great things.

            Upon first reading both poems I saw no connection between the two, but now I feel as if they almost go hand in hand. We are to always appreciate the world going on around us and recognize the potential we have within us; for when we live, we have power. This power we have is only available to the living, and the poems encourage us to use this power to the best of our abilities; this world is ours and our lives are what we make of them.