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.
"Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone."
- Wendell Berry
Adirondacks, Winslow Homer, 1892.
Thoughts
This is an extremely relatable poem, for who does not struggle with anxiety, fear for the future, or despair over the state of the world?
The speaker's remedy for these overwhelming emotions is spending time in nature. Eloping into a peaceful escape where human worries do not exist and he is free from human entanglements, pressures, and obligations.
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