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Crystal Turner
Professor Eckert
English 3600
November 20, 2013
Wordsworth and Industrialization in 1833
Industrialization created new problems as it solved older ones. Its disturbance to the
landscape and overturning of customs created anxiety reflected in Wordsworths poems.
Wordsworth turned to nature for spiritual renewal. His idealization of pastoral life and revulsion
toward urban life show his apprehension about mankinds future in an industrialized world. In
1804, he had written, 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! (1-4). The new capacity for earning and acquiring changed how people spent their
time and focused their energy. By saying, We have given our hearts away, Wordsworth
acknowledges that people have a choice in their behavior and response. Maybe it is not so much
the pig iron of industrialization that he is at odds with, but the commercialization that
accompanied it. He complains that little we see in Nature that is ours, but thirty years later he
would see Natures hand in Mans art (11). Over his lifetime he reconciled somewhat with
growing industrialization. Written roughly thirty years later, his poem, Steamboats, Viaducts,
and Railways, takes a different approach toward industrialization. Wordsworth warily accepts it,
giving it credit for its capabilities, and withholding ultimate judgment of whether or not it will
truly improve the quality of life.

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Wordsworth was not opposed to science. He even predicted that he would write poems
about new developments when they had become commonplace. In his Preface to Lyrical
Ballads, he wrote
The remotest discoveries of the chemist, the botanist, or mineralogist, will be as
proper objects of the poets art as any upon which it can be employed, if the time
should ever come when these things shall be familiar to us, and the relations
under which they are contemplated by the followers of these respective sciences
shall be manifestly and palpably material to us as enjoying and suffering beings
(302).
Wordsworths ambiguity about advances was already evident in 1802. He remained remarkably
consistent regarding progress. As enjoying and suffering beings, humans are affected for better
and worse.
In Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways, Wordsworth uses a fairly traditional sonnet
form. To say that it harkens back to earlier times may be too much, but it is undoubtedly
conservative in form. The sonnet is a conventional format for Wordsworth to address his conflict
between fast new transportation powered by steam engines, and the natural world that it disrupts.
The rhyme scheme, abbaaccadefedf, is more traditional than the blank verse he often used. The
volta comes in the ninth line as in an Italian sonnet. Wordsworth may have wanted an older style
to create a contrast with the modern topic. By choosing a conservative style, he makes clearer
that he takes a conservative position defending what is lost or imperiled.
The title, Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways, seems to restrict his topic to those
products of industrialization that conflict with nature in some way. Railways and viaducts cross
through nature, cutting a path through the landscape. Steamboats and trains both travel faster

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than had been possible. They conquered nature in a sense. Their very quality of being unnatural
made them indispensable to contemporary life. People wanted to shorten distances and save time
and energy. The commercial aspect cannot be ignored, because cheaper transportation costs
increased competition and lowered prices, further fueling commerce and creating more getting
and spending (347). So, even though he directly addresses steamboats, viaducts, and railways,
his topic must include the broader implications of commercialization.
The poem begins, Motions and Means, on land and sea at war / With old poetic feeling,
not for this, / Shall ye, by Poets even, be judged amiss! (1-3) As a poet, Wordsworth positions
himself as diametrically opposed to industrialization, but willing to judge it fairly. True to his
usual form, Wordsworth makes a negative statement: Motions and means will not be judged for
being at war with old poetic feeling. A straight forward interpretation might be that its ultimate
effects will be the basis for judgment. The way he worded it negatively, not for this, shall ye be
judged amiss, leaves motions and means open to be misjudged, but not because of the feud
between poets and industrialization. The wording could imply that industrialization itself will be
judged as amiss, rather than misjudged. Amiss also has the distinction of being the only
extra syllable in a poem of otherwise iambic pentameter. The word itself was amiss.
To say that the motions and means are at war on land and sea with the old poetic feeling
gives the drama an epic feeling because the war is being waged everywhere and cannot be
escaped. The war between new powers and old poetic feeling could stand as a battle for mens
souls. War also indicates there will be winners and losers. When the war ends, the world will
look different. The old poetic feeling may cede to a new poetic feeling in which the new
powers are integrated. Wordsworth really fights an internal war between the old and new.

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The stanza ends with an exclamation point that does not quite fit the cryptic, negative
wording. It puts emphasis on a statement that would otherwise sound more like an aside, as if the
speaker does not wish to be heard by all. The exclamation point counteracts Wordsworths
ambivalence. Wordsworth may be indicating that industrialization looms much larger than the
judgments of poets. In a way, the achievements of science, though created by men, have a life of
their own. The steam engine, improved by various different men over decades, would keep being
improved. No force could counteract it. The poet stood by and observed.
The poem continues, Nor shall your presence, howsoeer it mar / The loveliness of
Nature, prove a bar / To the Minds gaining that prophetic sense / Of future change, that point of
vision, whence / May be discovered what in soul ye are. (4-8) He makes another negative
statement, but this one is more limited in its meaning. To Wordsworth, Nature leads poets to a
mind capable of prophetic sense, and here he asserts that even marred Nature will continue to
inspire poets who will then determine the virtue or vice of industrialization. He must not be able
to see yet for himself, and thereby admits a small defeat because his prophetic sense fails him.
These motions and means have not been around long enough to determine the extent of damage
they may cause, yet their benefits are obvious. The intrusion of industrialization needs to be
filtered through memory to be understood. Without that combination of time passage and
reflective thought nothing can be fully appreciated. Wordsworth does not automatically value its
benefits more than the damage done to nature and man. That the poet must wait for the future to
unfold to discover the soul shows that he remains uncertain.
Wordsworth personifies industrialization, gives it a soul and speaks to it, suggesting that
he believes man and machine interact on a deep level. According to Khatun, Wordsworth went
to deconstruct the Enlightenment Sciences subject-object dualism in order to reestablish the

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complex interpenetration of everything including man (Khatun, 3). In this light, machines are
not merely objects invented for convenience, but something that reach much deeper and carry
unintended consequences. Only industrializations relationship with humans gives it a value
judgment. It really carries no vice or virtue of itself. Only a poet can see and understand its soul.
To some degree, Wordsworth must actually be making his own small and open-ended poetic, as
opposed to scientific, judgment of industrialization. He seems to believe that industrialization
will not destroy poets, but will still remain a destructive force to be reckoned with. The ultimate
judgment will show whether industrialization benefits more than it degrades humanity.
These lines offer an experience of his words. The enjambment after bar contradicts the
words by making the reader hang on to the word while finishing the thought, providing a small
bar to comprehending what it will not prove a bar to. The enjambment of sense / Of future
change provides a small experience of waiting for the future. He waits for a specific point of
vision, that time when the effects of the means and motions has either proved its worth or its
horror.
The volta comes in the ninth line. In spite of all that beauty may disown / In your harsh
features, Nature doth embrace / Her lawful offspring in Mans art; (9-11). While this statement
is qualified by In spite of all that beauty may disown / In your harsh features, it leads to the
first positive statement and increases its impact. For Wordsworth to say that Nature doth
embrace, means quite a bit. Nature is not at war with mans new inventions, even though he has
already said that they mar the loveliness of Nature (5). Nature must then be at the service of
man even if man abuses her. Man and his inventions are part of nature. It also raises the modern
inventions to an elevated status. If these inventions are part of nature, they share in her glory.
Mans status is elevated, too. His mastery over nature becomes somewhat natural. He did begin

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the statement, though, by referring to the harsh features and disassociation from beauty, so it is
a begrudging acceptance of kinship. The enjambment of embrace and Her lawful offspring
leaves a gap between them. Calling the offspring lawful makes it a somewhat forced embrace.
A mother loves even a criminal child, and her love does not make the child good. Mother Nature
loves this ugly industrial child who abuses her. Beauty disowns the child. The paternity
language conjures up an unruly child that the mother cannot help but love anyway.
The poem continues, and Time, / Pleased with your triumphs oer his brother Space, /
Accepts from your bold hands the proffered crown / Of hope, and smiles on you with cheer
sublime. Wordsworth makes a purely positive statement here, which increases its impact and
gives it the feel of certainty. The triumph of time over space remains a momentous achievement.
Referring to Time and Space as if they were some sort of living deities creates an ancient feeling
that underscores the magnificence and wonder of the inventions. Until this time, no human ever
had such control over time and space. Bold hands shows the audacity required to conceive
them and make them.
Time accepts the crown of hope. Steam engines enabled faster travel, higher production
and reduced labor. A victory crown would seem more appropriate. Wordsworth just
acknowledged the triumph over space, but he seems to want more. Maybe he merely
acknowledges that the future likely brings much more innovation. The crown of hope creates a
sense of even greater glory to come.
However, if Time has triumphed over his brother, Space, nature is no longer ordered, but
divided. Man has pitted nature against itself. Mans art has bold hands offering a crown of
hope. This entity has corrupted nature with unseemly competition. At the root of

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industrialization lies the desire for personal gain. The hope it offers is not true glory for its own
sake, but increased personal status at the expense of dividing even brothers.
Time accepts the crown and smiles back with cheer sublime. Edmund Burke explained,
The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, is astonishment; and astonishment is that
state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror (130). Time
may well be pleased with his triumph over his brother, Space, but he may also react with horror
at the unnatural victory. Mankind has found a new power and no one can control it. Nature,
represented by Time, accepts that crown of hope, but becomes a passive party. Nature has been
overcome and has no control over what these modern methods of transportation will do to her.
The rapid growth of railroads continued throughout the rest of Wordsworths life. In 1844
he opposed a proposed rail line ending at a lake near his home. He fought it with a sonnet,
printed in a newspaper, asking, Is then no nook of English ground secure / From rash assault?
(319, Poetical Works). Wordsworth remained consistent in protecting nature from the excesses of
the industrial age. According to Wells, he accepted that railways had a place, but believed this
particular project caused more harm than benefit. When he met opposition, he defended himself
by citing, Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways as proof that he supported railways, but not in
this particular case that would destroy the natural serenity of the lake area without serving an
important commercial need (42). Wordsworth evidently considered the poem a celebration of
modern transportation.
Wordsworth does celebrate the innovations, but clearly, he shows enough fear of them to
raise doubts about their abuse. That seems to be his point. The industrial revolution was a double
edged sword that cut both ways. All change has positives and negatives. The positives require no
pronouncements and no defense. Most people can weigh the obvious benefits of a railway

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against the loss of property, the intrusion, noise and smoke. Wordsworth wondered about the
unseen consequences. No one sees Time or his brother Space, and this unique way of presenting
the natural world as a sibling rivalry played and preyed on by men for their personal advantage
emphasizes the negative side of competition. Only a private competitive monetary system could
produce steamboats and railways. No tyrant, benevolent king or philosopher king can mandate
things undreamed of. Such power in the hands of ordinary citizens can prove magnificent and
frightful. Wordsworth wisely remained vigilant against excesses.

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Works Cited
Burke, Edmund. The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Vol. 1. Project Gutenberg.
Mar. 2005. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Greenblatt, Stephen, gen. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. New
York: Norton, 2012. Print.
Khatun, Kamrunnessa. "Re-Reading Eco-Critical Themes In Romanticism With Reference To
William Wordswrth's Tintern Abbey." Indian Streams Research Journal 2.11 (2012): 16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Wells, John Edwin. "Wordsworth And Railways In 1844-1845." Modern Language Quarterly
6.1 (1945): 35. Professional Development Collection. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Wordsworth, William. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Cambridge: ChadwyckHealey, 1992. Emory University. English Poetry. Web. 28 November 2013.
Wordsworth, William. Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2012. 348.
Print.
Wordsworth, William. The world is too much with us. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2012. 347.
Print.