The World Is Too Much With Us

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!
William Wordsworth, 1806

Walking along Oxford Street this evening, on my way to meet some friends for dinner, I stop to take this photo. Looking at it later, I wonder what story it has to tell me. Is it just a simple one, of carefree people enjoying the hustle and bustle of a big city under the Christmas lights?

Or might that sharp object thrusting into view on the right be, not the corner of a building, but the prow of a huge ship (a cruise liner? a battleship?), ploughing an indifferent track through the crowd of faces bobbing around below it in the dark sea? And what are those too-bright, artificial stars in the sky concealing from view?