Report to Wordsworth

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Report to Wordsworth
You should be here, Nature has need of you.

• Boey Kim Cheng

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Background

• Boey Kim Cheng was born in Singapore in 1965. He
  now lives and works in Australia. This poem has
  echoes of several sonnets by Wordsworth.
• Worsdworth often celebrates the beauty and
  spiritual values of the natural world in his
  poetry, contrasting Nature with the world of
  materialism. He suggests that because we are
  insensitive to the richness of Nature, we may be
  forfeiting our souls.

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The world is too much with us

• The world is too much with us late and
  soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our
  powersLittle we see in Nature that is oursWe
  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

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William Wordsworth

• It moves us notGreat God! I'd rather beA Pagan
  suckled in a creed outworn
• So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have
  glimpses that would make me less forlornHave
  sight of Proteus rising from the seaOr hear old
  Triton blow his wreathed horn.

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Wordsworths Poem

• Statement about conflict between nature and
  humanity.
• Wordsworth longs for a much simpler time when
  the progress of humanity was tempered by the
  restrictions nature imposed.
• Humanity has become self-absorbed and can no
  longer think clearly.
• Wordsworth seems to be able to foresee the
  inevitable. He sees himself as one with the
  environment.
• The destruction of the environment by mankind's
  shortsightedness will continue.

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Subject

• Chengs poem focuses on the same issues that
  Wordsworth was concerned with that of Mans
  destruction of Nature. However, Chengs poem
  comments on issues prevalent in our modern day
  society.
• Highlight the concerns in the poem.

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Tone

• Cheng dedicates his poem to Wordsworth in the
  opening line. What effect does this create?
• What is the mood of the poem?

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Imagery

• Compare
• 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.
• To
• All hopes of Proteus rising from the sea
• have sunk he is entombed in the waste
• We dump. Tritons notes struggle to be free,
• his famous horns are choked, his eyes are
  dazed

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Imagery

• Consider the phrase poetry and piety. What do
  the two words mean to separately and together?
  Do you think the two words go together?
• Refer also to Clarkes poem Lament which ends
  with the lament to the ashes of language. Are
  they saying similar things or are they different?
  
• What might be meant by the phrase wound
  widening?
• What is the effect of the final two lines?

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Form

• While Wordsworth used the Petrarchan (or Italian)
  form of the sonnet (like Keats On the
  Grasshopper and the Cricket) Boey prefers here
  to use the Shakespearian (or English) form with
  the final rhyming couplet.

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Feeling

• Is the poem just a clever interpretation of
  another famous poets work, or is it powerful in
  its own right?
• Explain your views.