Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Green Fields" by William Stanley Merwin is an elegiac meditation on the loss of nature, belief, and the passage of time. The poem tells the story of Peter, an aging man who lives through the great changes of the 20th century, a time that sees the diminishment of the natural world and traditional ways of life. Yet, despite these sweeping changes, Peter clings to his faith in eternal life, a faith vindicated in his final days.

The opening lines lament that "few are left who believe / in the animals," pointing to the decline of nature, symbolized by the absence of animals "in the carved parts / of them served on plates." These lines serve as a brutal acknowledgment of the industrialized slaughter of animals, leading to a disconnection from nature. What was once alive and integral to the natural world has been reduced to mere sustenance for humans, devoid of its own independent existence.

Yet the poem is not simply a dirge for the natural world. It also serves as a tribute to the resilience of belief against the tides of change. Peter, described with "gaunt cheeks / and point of white beard," is a figure from another era, a living anachronism who still "believed in heaven." Despite witnessing the "worst / times of the Great War" and the rapid changes that follow, his faith remains unshaken.

This enduring belief leads him to a pastoral idyll, where he finds a world reminiscent of his childhood, filled with "wildflowers he scarcely remembered" and communal labors like "scything the morning meadows." This is his earthly paradise, a world that he thought was lost but manages to find in his twilight years. For him, this experience becomes a kind of "earthly / model" of the eternal life he has always believed in.

However, even this sanctuary can't escape the inexorable march of time. When he can no longer maintain his garden, Peter gives up "his house land everything" and commits himself to a home to spend his final days. Here, the poem reaches its poignant climax. Even as he lies among those who have "lost / the use of body or mind," Peter's wall opens to reveal a vision of his eternal life: the gardens he had made, the fields of his childhood, and the figure of his mother.

"Green Fields" therefore evolves into a profound meditation on the persistence of belief, the loss of the natural world, and the transformative power of memory and hope. Merwin masterfully weaves these themes into a narrative that is at once personal and universal, capturing the tension between despair and hope, loss and continuity. The poem suggests that even when surrounded by the "last days of the world," a glimmer of eternal life can still break through, affirming the enduring power of faith.

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