Hi my name is Sarah Urist Green and I'm going to be reading "The World is Too Much With Us" by William Wordsworth. I chose this poem because my high school English teacher, Mrs.Touie, had us memorize it and it's been with me ever since I liked it then and I like it now because it articulates so well that feeling of being detached from nature, of squandering it, both individually and personally, but also collectively in our failure to take care of it.

"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 wreathèd horn."