In this installment, Kevin Goodan reads “The world is too much with us” by William Wordsworth. Goodan was raised in Montana, and fought forest fires for many years. He attended the University of Montana, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His first book, In the Ghost-House Acquainted, was published by Alice James Books in 2004, and recieved the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for 2005. He currently lives on a small farm in western Massachusetts.

William Wordsworth, "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!
The 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.