Learning to Enjoy Poetry 101

A 16-minute video lesson and guided reading of a Wendell Berry poem

“I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.”

—Billy Collins, “Introduction to Poetry”

Resurrection of the Wild
by Wendell Berry

The country where he lives
is haunted
by the ghost of an old forest.
In the cleared fields
where he gardens
and pastures his horses
it stood once,
and will return. There will be
a resurrection of the wild.
Already it stands in wait
at the pasture fences.
It is rising up
in the waste places of the cities.
When the fools of the capitals
have devoured each other
in righteousness,
and the machines have eaten
the rest of us, then
there will be the second coming
of the trees. They will come
straggling over the fences
slowly, but soon enough.
The highways will sound
with the feet of the wild herds,
returning. Beaver will ascend
the streams as the trees
close over them.
The wolf and the panther
will find their old ways
through the nights. Water
and air will flow clear.
Certain calamities
will have passed,
and certain pleasures.
The wind will do without
corners. How difficult
to think of it: miles and miles
and no window.

Working to read a poem is a kind of work that isn’t really work, but is more like living and being, paying attention, noticing, being caught by surprise. Feeling something different than you were feeling before you read the words of the poem. . . . I think that’s what poetry is for. To open up the questions, pay attention to the details, feel a little larger in your own soul.

Inroad:

This poem is not only about one thing, but one of the things it is about is the way nature grows back. We may develop over top of it, but once we stop building, trees come closer, grass grows through cracks in the cement. The “wild” resurrects itself.

Tips for first reading¹:

• Unless you want to, don’t worry who the “he” in the first several lines is.

• Don’t worry about understanding the lines in the middle that begin and end with “When the fools of the capitals . . . and the machines have eaten / the rest of us”—unless you really like them and want to work them out.

• Don’t try to think of the overall message of the poem, but instead notice phrases here and images there that connect with your experience. Then think about the mental images those parts of the poem conjure and how they make you feel. For instance, “In the cleared fields / where he gardens” makes me think of my garden that overlooks the woods in our backyard. I feel very close to nature there with the flowers and the bees.

Questions (Please share your answers in the comments!):

1. Find one sentence or phrase in the poem (can be on one line or cover several lines) that stands out to you as strong or appealing. Sit with it for a minute or two. Share it in the comments so we can all enjoy it.

2. Find one or two images, like “the wolf and the panther” or “Water and air will flow clear.” Do the images you chose feel positive or negative to you? Do they make you think of any past memories or present desires you have, or of something you’ve read and seen before? If they were captured in a painting, what might that painting look like?

3. If you like to draw, sketch one of the images you chose.

4. In the end, the narrator claims that it’s “difficult to think of . . . miles and miles” of woodland and no buildings or signs of human habitation. Is that difficult for you to imagine or easy? Why or why not?

5. Share any other things you notice in this poem—or questions you have about it.

. . . Don’t look now, but you just received a poem!

Resources:

• Tania Runyan’s excellent book How to Read a Poem

• “What Is a Poem? You read it; it reads you. An Object Lesson.” article by Mark Yakich at The Atlantic.

• My friend Laura has reminded about prolific poet Marianne Moore’s poem entitled “Poetry,” which begins with “I too, dislike it.”

• My friend Jenna recommends poet Dana Gioia’s book Can Poetry Matter?

1. I’m not saying these things don’t matter. They do! But they also don’t, not when it comes to the first reading of a poem, where you’re letting the words and images wash over you.