The Mall Is Too Much With Us

A parody of Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us,” which appears under the parody The mall is too much with us, spring and fall. Getting and spending, we lay waste each pay check. There's little in nature we won't someday wreck. We've given our hearts away to cholesterol. Beach beauties bare too much to one and all. The howling dopeheads raise all kinds of heck. Pollution worldwide makes me say, "Oh, yecch!" Hey, wary youth, we'll leave this all to y'all! I'm moved to yell, "Great God, we're out of tune!" Had I the choice, I swear I'd rather be A lone coyote howling at the moon Or a jabbering monkey swinging from tree to tree And sharing branch room with a shrieking loon. Of earth's abominations these are free. “The World Is Too Much with Us” Italian sonnet by William Wordsworth (1770- 1850) The sonnet is one of his responses to the Industrial Revolution. 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. June 21, 2021 Contemporary Sonnet Contest Sponsor: Charlote Puddifoot