Joni Mitchell and William Wordsworth

Romantic poet, William Wordsworth, and Folk singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell, both comment about their respective “worlds” and the way these worlds have been perceived or treated. Although both artists are from a different time in history, their work somehow cast off the anchors of their own eras with material that continually remains relevant through generations of listeners and readers. Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and William Wordsworth’s “The World is too Much With Us” are perfect examples. Both works represent modern humanity’s lost spiritual connection with nature. The symbolism created by the images and metaphors represented in Wordsworth's and Mitchell’s work show a deep passion about the conflict between nature and modern progress. Images and metaphors alluding to mankind's greed, nature's innocence, and the speaker's rejection of accepted principles all serve to illustrate the speaker's passion to save their decadent eras. Both Wordswoth and Mitchell lived in capitalist societies of different time eras. Wordsworth wrote “The world is too Much With Us” in 1807 in the midst of the industrial revolution. Joni Mitchell, who was undoubtedly a proponent of grassroots anti-corporate politics, released “Big Yellow Taxi” in 1970.

Wordsworth's And Mitchell’s deep cynicism to materialistic ambition and destruction of nature is clearly evident in their work The first part of "The World Is Too Much with Us" begins with Wordsworth accusing the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and everything meaningful. “We lay waste our powers” on “getting and spending”. The appetite mankind has for devouring all that is around clouds our perspective as to what is being sacrificed for the progress. The idea that Wordsworth is trying to make clear, is that human beings are too preoccupied in the material value of things and have lost their spiritual connection with Mother Nature. This is also evident in Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” where the song opens with “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Everybody has seen this happen in his or her own town. Wall Mart has sprung up in practically every town in the U.S. and in many parts of the world. An area that was once full of beautiful trees is now a gigantic Wall Mart parking lot. One reason that Wall Mart is the largest corporation in the world is because people can be “getting and spending” as much as they want there.

Both of these works explain that nature is vulnerable and at the mercy of mankind. Humanity has become self-absorbed and can no longer think clearly. The destructiveness society has on the environment will proceed unchecked and relentless like the “winds that will be howling at all hours. The phrase “sleeping flowers” may suggest that nature is helpless and unknown to the destruction man is doing. In the verse “Little we see in Nature that is ours”, Wordsworth is expressing that nature is not a commodity to be exploited by humans, but should coexist with humanity. "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" he pronounces that in our materialistic lifestyles, nothing