Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumAllusions in Poetry

Read the poem below carefully:

The World Is Too Much with Us

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 wreathed horn.

In the final two lines of the poem, what function do the mythological allusions to Proteus and Triton serve?

  1. A
    suggest that the poet has fully rejected contemporary religion in order to worship ancient Greek deities
  2. B
    warn the reader about the destructive, unpredictable power of wild oceans and seas
  3. C
    blame classical deities for causing the speaker's overwhelming feelings of grief and isolation
  4. illustrate the speaker's desire to perceive a vital, spiritually animated presence within the natural landscapeAnswer
  5. E
    mark a shift in tone where the speaker celebrates the inevitable dominance of human progress over the environment

Answer

illustrate the speaker's desire to perceive a vital, spiritually animated presence within the natural landscape
The correct option correctly identifies that the speaker uses the classical allusions to Proteus and Triton to illustrate a desire to see nature as spiritually alive. The speaker laments that modern humanity is alienated from the natural world ('It moves us not') and declares a preference for paganism because a pagan perspective would allow the speaker to see divinity in the sea, alleviating their sense of being forlorn.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the context of the allusions within the poem.
The speaker laments that modern humanity is 'out of tune' with nature due to materialism ('getting and spending').
Understanding the problem of alienation is necessary to evaluate the speaker's proposed alternative.
2
Identify the mythological figures referenced in the final lines.
Proteus and Triton are ancient Greek sea deities closely associated with the natural forces of the ocean.
This details the specific classical content of the allusion.
3
Determine how these allusions address the speaker's distress.
By imagining these deities, the speaker expresses a longing for an animistic worldview that treats nature as alive and divine, making the speaker feel 'less forlorn.'
This establishes the function of the allusion in relation to the poem's theme of spiritual connection versus industrial alienation.

Key Concept

Allusions in Poetry
Rate this question

Topics

Allusions in Poetry

More questions from this topic