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Analysis of "The Want of Peace" by Wendell Berry


Poem found here: Reading "The Want of Peace"
More about the Poet:  Wendell Berry


"All goes back to the earth," is such a strong statement of resignation.  Welp, we're all dust in the wind, so what?  The "so what" is the point of the poem.  Written in first person, the speaker thoughts and experiences relate to what he/she things of "all goes back to earth" or what to do until that happens.

"and so I do not desire / pride of excess or power"  pretty basic set up lines.  Also, the lines come off as grandeur but broad.  Regardless, If I don't wan't "x", usually I want "y."  y being:

but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman's silence
receiving the river's grace,
the gardener's musing on rows
The statement of "men who have had little" makes this poem turn towards class.  Can't rich people be fishermen and gardeners?   Yes.  But those whose lives depend on the silence, the river's grace, the ability to muse on rows to get through the day.

This sets up the next line, "I lack the peace of simple things."  Note that the picturesque scenes above represent "simple things" due to the placement of the line if contentments and simple things mean the same thing.  But also note that this doesn't mean the speaker is "rich" in only the materialistic sense.

I am never wholly in place.
I find no peace or grace
We sell the world to buy fire,
our way lighted by burning men

The poem expands outward where the "I" becomes "we".  The speaker and everyone is to blame for selling the world to buy fire in the backdrop of burning men.  Also note the images expand outwards like the speaker.  In the blur of description, this is the "reality" that the speaker does.

The reality makes the speaker introspective:

and that has bent my mind
and made me think of darkness
and wish for the dumb life of roots

The introspection is simple.  People like me do bad things, I want to go back the foundational simple things. I get it.

But broad brushstrokes that define the speaker and predicament with the reaction equally broad and hyperbolized.  There's this feeling of lack of definition that drew me to this poem.  Is the big sense of peace just as wrong as selling the world to buy fire because the lack of direction and description?

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