Review of Wendell Berry's "Given"

Given manifests Wendell Berry’s talent at its poetic heights, drawing the reader further and further into the magical world of the real. It is a compilation of short poems about every aspect of life, from cathedrals to dust motes, a dramatic poem, and his “Sabbath poems.” The compilation moves from the simplicity of everyday life, to the mysteries of the eternal, entangling its reader in the majesty the Berry is able to portray.

The first sections of Given “In a Country Once Forested” and “Further Words” are composed of short, simple poems, yet somehow a tremendous meaning is portrayed in these slight tributes to life. The Cathedral is “Stone/of the earth/made/of its own weight/light” and All “bend in one wind.” These are two full poems both manifesting symbolism despite their smallness. The trick of many of these short poems is that their meaning surpasses the full understanding of the reader encompassing mystery that allows the reader to enter into contemplation of the words and their meaning.

Berry masterfully wraps his reader into the fullness of contemplation in the third section of Given, “Sonata at Payne Hollow.” It is the tale of two ghosts who were wedded in life, but consumed by something beyond themselves as well. They were enchanted out of themselves by the contemplation of nature and the world. Harlan is consumed by wanderlust and Anna is caught up in the beauty of his wanderer’s soul. In Harlan’s yearning for solitary wonderment, he realizes that the perfection he would reach alone is not as perfect as the “imperfect union of two,” which he engages in with his wife. The wonder of this poem of love between humans and nature wraps the reader into the world of contemplation that Berry expresses throughout his writing.

The last journey that Berry guides his reader to is the depth of peace following contemplation. “Sabbaths” is a collection of poems from his Sunday walks over the years. The reader experiences the sensation of wandering in the beauty that he has been caught up in with Berry’s mountain of wonder. The climax of the “Sonata” lends itself to a gliding journey downwards and a peaceful exit of the land that Wendell Berry has Given to his reader.

Wendell Berry’s Given is a journey that Berry wishes to guide his people in. The world of simplicity lends itself to the wonder and contemplation that he intends to bestow and illustrate. The quest is to receive fulfillment, to know beauty, to be blown away by all that one sees, and to therefore live true joy. It is Berry’s gift to his reader, bestowed in a tender love for nature, the world and the reader, a joy that overflows from his own heart into the spirit of those receiving his gift. It is an experience that should be lived and not simply read, an exploration of the soul and world that should change the one who encounters its beauty.