The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I initially choose this poem because we are singing an arrangement of it in choir, and I assumed it would be a simple, easy poem to memorize; however, my conjectures were completely wrong. The more time I spent in this poem, the more I found it fraught with the everyday stress many of us at Harpeth Hall endure. "The Peace of Wild Things," may seem a glibly thrown together poem about finding peace in nature, but it is far from that. 

The line "I come into the peace of wild things / who do not tax their lives with forethought / of grief."  is a line that is easily passed over in a listless reading of the poem, and, I admit, I passed it over the first few times I read it. Yet, arguably, it is this line that encompasses the entire poem and its meaning. While the word "grief" can mean the mourning of a loved one, Merriam-Webster also defines it as "a cause of deep sadness" or "trouble or annoyance." Another important word to know in this section is "tax." Once again, I turn to Mr. Merriam and Webster who tell me to tax is to "make onerous and rigorous demands on." 

So, picture that. You're in nature. You're in a forest, lying beside a stream, listening the birds above you, the squirrels in trees, the bunnies in bushes, the deer deeper in the woods, and the fish in the stream. All of the things I have just mentioned aren't "taxed" with "grief." What the narrator struggles with, and something I struggle with, is having very difficult demands of trouble put on us, whether it is through school, family, or just worry about the world in general. But when the narrator has this feeling of stress, annoyance, and sadness, she comes into the peace of wild things. The peace of wild things. These animals and nature about us are not worried about anything. They do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

This poem is about taking a break from stress and from fear of the future that is ever-present in our world. The narrator has found what makes her calm: the peacefulness and calmness of wild things.

“The Peace of Wild Things” has challenged me with the question: where do I rest in grace and become free? I, like the narrator, find “wild things” peaceful. Yet, I seldom rest in their peace. I often find my break from friends. One of my friends would typically be described as quiet, but a more accurate statement would be that she has a calm soul. We do not have to constantly be talking, sometimes we just sit in the quiet. It’s quite rejuvenating to be able to rest with someone, especially when you’re an extrovert who likes to be around people, yet craves deep, meaningful relationships. Being able to sit and silence with someone can be more powerful than the most famous quote ever said. I believe this is what the narrator is pushing us towards as readers. I believe she is trying to show the beauty of the place she finds her rest, and push others to find a place that they can take a break from taxing their life with grief. So, whose or what’s presence can you come into and not be taxed with forethought of grief?