William Wordsworth was one of the prominent Romantic poets who praised the power and beauty of nature. He published this poem in 1814 at a point in time when the Industrial Revolution was making its visible impact on Great Britain. Wordsworth’s words paint a graphic picture of how the appearance of industrialization had begun to disfigure the British landscape, and he deeply mourns the disappearance of the rural and tranquil countryside he so admired.
Meanwhile, at social Industry’s command How quick, how vast an increase. From the germ Of some poor hamlet, rapidly produced Here a huge town, continuous and compact Hiding the face of earth for leagues—and there,
Where not a habitation stood before,
Abodes of men irregularly massed
Like trees in forests, spread through spacious tracts.
O’er which the smoke of unremitting fires
Hangs permanent, and plentiful as wreaths Of vapor glittering in the morning sun.
And, wheresoe’er the traveler turns his steps He sees the barren wilderness erased,
Or disappearing, triumph that proclaims How much the mild Directness of the plough Owes to alliance with these new-born arts!
Hence is the wide seas peopled—hence the shores Of Britain are resorted to by ships Freighted from every climate of the world With the world’s choicest produce. Hence that sum Of keels that rest within her crowded ports Or ride at anchor in her sounds and bays;
That animating spectacle of sails
That, through her inland regions, to and fro
Pass with the respirations of the tide,
Perpetual, multitudinous!
I grieve when on the darker side Of this great change I look; and there behold Such outage done to nature as compels The indignant power to justify herself;
Yea, to avenge her violated rights.
For England’s bane.
Source: W. Wordsworth, ‘‘The Excursion,’’ in Knight, L. L.D, ed., Poetical
Works (Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1884), Http://www. gutenberg. org/ Ebooks/10219
World History
