Wordsworth adopts the structure of the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet in “The World Is Too Much With Us.” The poem contains 14 lines, separated into one octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), with an abba abba cdcdcd rhyme scheme, and the poem maintains a consistent iambic pentameter. True to the form of the Petrarchan sonnet, “The World Is Too Much With Us” also contains a volta or “turn” on the ninth line. In typical Petrarchan sonnets, the ninth line of verse between the octave and sestet is a volta, a moment in which the building conflict turns into some kind of resolution. Here, Wordsworth leaves off his grim observations of society and the forgotten natural world and tries to find a solution in ancient, pagan religion.

The choice to compose “The World Is Too Much With Us” with the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, a form that was invariably used for love poetry, reflects the tone of the poem itself. The sonnet essentially acts as a love poem from Wordsworth towards nature. Like a Petrarchan poet, Wordsworth describes how the object of his affections, the sea, bares her breast and chastises the people who have given their hearts away to a different lover.