Nature as a place of refuge in this beautiful poem by Wendell Berry, an American poet, essayist, and environmental activist. He was born and grew up on a farm in Kentucky, and returned to farming after studying and teaching writing. This poem, almost prayer-like, is written with simple vocabulary yet speaks to vast emotions.
When despair for the world grows in me
By Wendell Barry
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.
Noticings and Questions
- How is Berry using contrast in this poem?
- Why might he have opened with “despair” and “fear”? Why end with “grace” and “freedom”?
- What purpose might this poem serve for the author? For the reader?
- Consider the evocative line “I feel above me the day-blind stars, waiting with their light” … what feelings does this image evoke?
- What does “wild” mean in this essay? What is human’s relationship to wildness?
- What would this poem look like as an essay? What is Berry trying to say about the world, and its vanishing, precious ‘wild’ places
- What else do you notice? What questions do you have?
GREEN & GROW 