The Peace Of Wild Things Summary & Analysis By Wendell Berry

"The Peace of Wild Things" celebrates nature's ability to refresh and restore the human mind. The speaker, full of despair and fear, finds a kind of "peace" among the "wild things" of the natural world, which—unlike humans—don’t worry about whatever might happen next and instead live in the present. The poem implies that, for all humanity's complexity and advancement, nature remains a vital source of wisdom and consolation.

The speaker’s anxiety suggests that human beings, uniquely among all creatures, have a talent for being afraid of things that haven’t even happened yet. The speaker often wakes during the night, full of "despair for the world" and fear for the future. In this state, the "least sound” suggests danger and threat. The speaker gets so worked up that the whole world seems menacing, even though nothing is immediately wrong.

This kind of anxiety, the poem suggests, isn’t unusual, but rather is part of the human experience: the speaker describes these late-night fears matter-of-factly, as if certain that the rest of humanity has similar anxieties.

But the everyday course of the natural world offers the nervous speaker comfort. Nature is "wild" and instinctive, full of "beauty"—and doesn’t seem to worry about what might happen next. When the speaker’s worries are at their worst, the speaker goes outside to “rest” and finds that everything in nature is just calmly doing what it does, rather than fretting about the future.

The wood drake "rests in his beauty on the water," a lake or pond lies quiet and still, and stars in the sky go about their starry business. For the speaker, this lack of anxious "forethought" in nature gives the natural world a beautiful and rejuvenating sense of "grace" and "peace."

The poem thus encourages its readers to learn from nature and not to get too lost in anxious “forethought.” Because nature exists fully in the present, not in fear of the future, it can both act as a kind of safety valve (relieving the pressures of everyday life when they become unbearable) and as a teacher. Simply “rest[ing]” in nature while it goes about its business helps the speaker to feel "free," and to understand just how futile anxiety really is.

The speaker's sense of natural freedom and wisdom doesn’t last forever, of course: it’s just "for a time." Even for a moment, though, nature grounds the speaker in reality, settling this person's spirit. Overall, then, the poem implies that humanity should cherish, nurture, and learn from the natural world that it calls home.