Getting and Spending

I was thinking of this poem today and how much the first two lines can apply to me at times. I think that many modern individuals contend with the first two lines of this poem. I vaguely recalled the lines, "The world is too much with us... Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." Next, I thought of how many people in the suburban, urban, and even rural areas strive to have the latest flat screen television or the latest technological gizmo. Then, I searched for the rest of the poem. It is enclosed below. May it speak to you, web wanderer.

William Wordsworth: "The World Is Too Much with Us" (1807)

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;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; (1)
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, (2)
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus (3) rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton (4) blow his wreathed horn.