What Harbor Shelters Peace?
- mrymntcpw
- Sep 21, 2025
- 2 min read
9/21/25
I write this morning from our cottage on Hubbard Lake, Michigan. It is warm and cozy inside, a gentle rain is falling outside, and I feel that I am in a sanctuary of peace and tranquillity. Simon and I spent yesterday on the lake fishing, on what most people would consider a nearly perfect day. What could be better than spending the day with one’s son, who is loving, trust-worthy, and wise? I felt totally “at peace.”
But I am not naive, and I recognize that outside my bubble, there lies a chaotic world. On this Sunday morning, I could stand in a pulpit and pontificate about so many grievances, but instead, I will direct the question to George Crabbe, Montagu Slater, and Benjamin Britten.
In 1945, Sadler Wells opera company in London produced a masterpiece, Peter Grimes, by Benjamin Britten, composer; and Montagu Slater, librettist; based upon a narrative poem by George Crabbe.
“With its compelling and emotive music, Britten’s Peter Grimes is a haunting opera that explores the downfall of a fisherman in a close-knit community with devastating consequences…Delving into themes of isolation, prejudice, and the destructive power of gossip and mob mentality” the opera tells the story of Peter Grimes, an outsider, torn between the dream of a conventional life with Ellen Orford, a local schoolteacher, and the truth of his own nature – at times visionary, at others violent.
In a brief monolog, Peter Grimes ponders our question:
What harbour shelters peace?
Away from tidal waves, away from storm
What harbour can embrace
Terrors and tragedies?
With her [Ellen] there’ll be no quarrels,
With her the mood will stay,
A harbour evermore
Where night is turned to day.
I offer you the following excerpt, listen to how Britten uses the orchestra to depict the winds of the impending storm. Brilliant!
CPW
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