I can’t remember who said it, but it was that when you are feeling absolutely miserable, or absolutely happy, only poems can adequately describe the extremity of your feelings. Poems are like small but strong breath mints. They have lots of meaning, all packed into a few lines that are restricted by form and word choice. So each word, each metaphor and line, is powerful by comparison to ordinary text.
If you wanted to express how you feel about the first daffodils of Spring, would you say, in a prosaic way, that the daffodils have come up and bloomed. Or would you rather quote William Wordsworth – who said it so perfectly? “[…] A host, of golden daffodils;/Beside the lake, beneath the trees,/Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
When it comes to misery in verse form, there are plenty of poems and lyrics to pick from. The world is full of poets and writers in the throes of mental anguish and existential despair. It is far harder to write about happiness without sounding maudlin, insincere, or clichéd. Happiness is, after all, a moment’s emotion and a passing feeling. The poet has to find the words for that, which is as difficult as trying to pin cooked spaghetti to a wall.
This poem, by American poet Wendell Berry (now 90 years old) has been reproduced countless times, because he captures an emotion that is even more difficult to describe than pure happiness: he describes the process of finding a moment of happiness. And he does so in a way that sounds completely authentic and candid. (And is authentic, by the way. He is also a farmer and environmentalist.)
The Peace of Wild Things
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.
From The Peace of Wild Things And Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)
Isn’t that just simple beautiful – simple, and clear, and evocative, and beautiful? “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.” Can you picture it? Doesn’t it make you want to go outside, away from the buildings and streets and into nature? Every time I read this, I do just that.
What I wouldn’t give to have the gift and the skill to write like this. Imagine, having thousands and thousands of people read and appreciate your poem so much, for so many years, that it becomes the definite statement about finding happiness in nature.
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 
I can’t remember who said it, but it was that when you are feeling absolutely miserable, or absolutely happy, only poems can adequately describe the extremity of your feelings. Poems are like small but strong breath mints. They have lots of meaning, all packed into a few lines that are restricted by form and word choice. So each word, each metaphor and line, is powerful by comparison to ordinary text.
If you wanted to express how you feel about the first daffodils of Spring, would you say, in a prosaic way, that the daffodils have come up and bloomed. Or would you rather quote William Wordsworth – who said it so perfectly? “[…] A host, of golden daffodils;/Beside the lake, beneath the trees,/Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
When it comes to misery in verse form, there are plenty of poems and lyrics to pick from. The world is full of poets and writers in the throes of mental anguish and existential despair. It is far harder to write about happiness without sounding maudlin, insincere, or clichéd. Happiness is, after all, a moment’s emotion and a passing feeling. The poet has to find the words for that, which is as difficult as trying to pin cooked spaghetti to a wall.
This poem, by American poet Wendell Berry (now 90 years old) has been reproduced countless times, because he captures an emotion that is even more difficult to describe than pure happiness: he describes the process of finding a moment of happiness. And he does so in a way that sounds completely authentic and candid. (And is authentic, by the way. He is also a farmer and environmentalist.)
The Peace of Wild Things
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.
From The Peace of Wild Things And Other Poems (Penguin, 2018)
Isn’t that just simple beautiful – simple, and clear, and evocative, and beautiful? “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.” Can you picture it? Doesn’t it make you want to go outside, away from the buildings and streets and into nature? Every time I read this, I do just that.
What I wouldn’t give to have the gift and the skill to write like this. Imagine, having thousands and thousands of people read and appreciate your poem so much, for so many years, that it becomes the definite statement about finding happiness in nature.
Share this: