I'd rather be a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn

We've been posting some poetry appropriate to the season.  A friend sent this famous Wordsworth poem, appropriate to a season in which materialism can overtake other attitudes about the world.  The ideas are relevant even to those not formally celebrating these days for religious reasons.  At least, their spirit is about perceiving the nature of the Nature of which we're apart, and in cultural terms, about trying to get along and live together.  Maybe you recall this from your school days, as we did.  But we thank Hank for reminding us of it.


"THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON"

        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.                                                            1806.