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Wordsworth
Boey Kim Cheng
You should be here, Nature has need of
you.
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.
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;

William Wordsworth
It moves us notGreat 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.

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

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?
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.

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