Toronto Yoga Conference 2010 - Part 2

During the yoga workshop today, Aadil Palkhivala recited a few lines from Wordsworth that keep rattling around in my head:
"The world is always with us; late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
little we see in nature that is ours".

Wordsworth composed this sonnet in 1802, upset about the "decadent materialism cynicism of the time". 

The poem, and the painting by Tiepolo (1762) are presented in the Harper's archive .


Wonder what the poet would have to say about the state of affairs today?

                                          18.
                                  —————
    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 every thing, 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 coming from the sea,
    Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.