Net's up! my Friend, so quit with words,
For surely your world's doubled:
Net's up my friend so join the herds:
Enjoy the techno troubled.

The screen's eclipsed the mountain's head,
Its luminescent phosphors glow
Through all the long green world it's spread,
The word in lonesome woeful flow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the worldweb sonnet,
How sweet its music on my life,
'Ere's more than wisdom on it.

And hark! how bright the image sings!
It, too, is no mean preacher
Brings forth the backlit light of things,
Let networks be your teacher.

It has a world of ready wealth,
Our maddened hearts to test-
Instant wisdom ruled by stealth,
information ruling connectedness.

One impluse from a virtual wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the cyborgs can.

Sweet the lore the network brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the emerging forms of things: -
We'd murder and inspect.

Enough of Scientific Art,
Of tranmissions that we believe,
Despite the fact that we're so smart
we want so dearly to receive.

Black Text: Original poem by William Wordsworth from the 1798 edition of the Lyrical Ballads

Red Text: Adaptation by Timothy Druckrey 1997