In the sonnet's final two lines, Wordsworth reaches toward mythic visions: "Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; / Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn." Proteus possessed the ability to shift shapes constantly, slipping away unless pinned down. Triton, the messenger of the deep, could calm or whip up the waves with his conch shell.
Why did Wordsworth invoke these specific oceanic figures? Proteus embodies the shifting, wild variety of the natural universe, an unpredictable vitality that resists orderly classification. Triton represents voice, direct sensory sound, and the primal music of the elements. Standing upon a "pleasant lea," Wordsworth longed for an encounter so direct that it shattered the numb insulation of modern commercial life.
For modern readers navigating synthetic images and ceaseless breaking-news alerts, the desire for unmediated reality is acute. Screen exhaustion produces an eerie detachment where real wars, celebrity trivialities, and weather disasters scroll past with the same emotional weight. Invoking Triton is an appeal to feel genuine awe again, to trade the simulated glow for raw wind and salt spray.
