Freefall, no control; fear and hope battle the forefront of cognition, but in a singular moment before ground meets flesh is acceptance, bringing with it a lull. No place to run, no choice to be made simply knowledge that whatever happens, happens. This is perfect peace. This powerful sensation is expressed in possibly one of its most terrifying and beautiful forms in the poem “Once by The Pacific” by Robert Frost.
Often times in his childhood years frost would be left alone on the beach while his father went off on long swims, where young Robert would sit in relative terror feeling totally abandoned until his father would reappear at the crest of a wave and shortly after be on dry land. I find it interesting that on lines 8-9 Robert Frost writes “The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, and the cliff in being backed by continent” Perhaps he considers them lucky because they are unified while he faced his terrors alone.
Throughout the poem the ocean and other natural elements pertaining are personified as to being lucid; for example: “The waves looked over other coming in, And though of doing something to the shore” and “It looked as if a night of dark intent.” The very sea seems to be a larger than life antagonist that nothing can stand against except God himself who seems to be using it as means of destruction. On the same planet that God said “let there be light” he also says when to “put out the light” It’s totally out of control like gravity, and the whole world seems to be falling to the edge of oblivion with no means to stop its course short of an act of god. Meanwhile his people and creation are on an earth being consumed, with no place to run no choice to be made. Simply knowledge that whatever happens, happens, finally in the midst of all the chaos; this is perfect peace.