William Wordsworth was a "Romantic" poet, meaning he belonged to a group of poets writing in a particular style at the end of the nineteenth century. That historical moment was characterized by the incredible rise of the Industrial Revolution, and the technology, industry, and wealth that came with it. Romantics wrote in response to this changing context with poems that celebrated and elegized nature, and recalled classical themes (like Muses and spirits) as an antidote to what they considered to be dislocating modernization.
"The World is Too Much With Us" is a poem in this tradition. In it, Wordsworth bemoans the "getting and spending" that drains society, and how "little we see in Nature that is ours." In giving away Nature in order to pursue wealth, he believes that "we have given our hearts away."
Certainly, industrialization and capitalism have intensified over the last hundred years, as has the consumerism and accumulation of wealth that have accompanied them. Whether you believe that we, today, have also continued to trade in the gifts of nature for money and technology is a personal opinion.
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