I listened this morning to an interesting Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary: “In Search of The Hermit Within” – http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/in-search-of-the-hermit-within/5556172



“Being homeless is rarely a lifestyle choice but for some people freedom from social convention and solitude is all that matters.

Seeking out a life without stresses and artificial noise, a hermit will cast off the shackles of modern society and embed themselves in mother nature’s embrace. They willingly trade a fixed abode for the confines of the elements and they gratefully hand over any attachment to commercialism in exchange for living off the land.

But is being a hermit as romantically ideal as it sounds?



‘In search of the hermit within’ explores the dreams and realities of isolation by choice. Using memoir, fiction and interviews writers Stewart Nestel and Peter Davis take us on a journey into the Australian bush to meet real hermits and hear tales of hermits encountered.”



The program included readings from “The Wanderer” (1901) by the Australian poet, Christopher Brennan (1870-1932) – see http://sydney.edu.au/alumni/sam/november2011/christopher-brennan.shtml :



“I know I am

the wanderer of the ways of all the worlds,

to whom the sunshine and the rain are one

and one to stay or hasten, because he knows

no ending of the way, no home, no goal,

and phantom night and the grey day alike

withhold the heart where all my dreams and days

might faint in soft fire and delicious death:

and saying this to myself as a simple thing

I feel a peace fall in the heart of the winds

and a clear dusk settle, somewhere, far in me.”

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/brennanc/poetry/wanderer.html

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Like this: Like Loading... Related