The Human's Dilemma

“Anger Against Beasts” - (1971) Wendell Berry

“The hook of adrenalin shoves

into the blood. Man's will,

long schooled to kill or have

its way, would drive the beast

against nature, transcend

the impossible in simple fury.

The blow falls like a dead seed.

It is defeat, for beasts

do not pardon, but heal or die

in the absence of the past.

The blow survives in the man.

His triumph is a wound. Spent,

he must wait the slow

unalterable forgiveness of time.”

A pioneer in environmental awareness and writing, a farmer, and poet, Wendell Berry has been the inspiration for some of the most prolific writers in the 21^st Century. Revered and beloved, his work and his example have great meaning to me. The first time I read this poem tears welled in my eyes and I knew that I would always appreciate his work. The beauty of his work, and this poem in particular, comes from the conciseness of the verse, and the unmasked quality of the sentiments expressed. Berry is unafraid to convey the severe, harsh reality of life, and the human's relationship to other living things, amidst all this biological confusion. His line breaks emphasize this constructed brevity, as they lend to an attractive rhythm that smoothly carries his words throughout the poem. Without seeming elementary or trite, Berry also uses subtle repetition and rhyme to reinforce his theme and tone. “Man's will” and the phrase “schooled to kill” obviously rhyme, but are placed in a way to make the meaning of the words superior to the sound of the words. Another was Berry uses rhyme in an unobtrusive way, is through the use of slant rhymes. Words like “seed,” defeat,” and “beasts” follow one another to establish a sort of movement or flow within the text, without overpowering the significance of the words themselves. Berry also uses repetition to accentuate the more important images of the poem. “Man,” “beast,” and “the blow” are used multiple times to pronounce the major players and events in this narrative. Ultimately, the violence used against beast reflexively harms man in the process. Berry underscores the sense of guilt all good men should feel in using aggression against an innocent being.