Ekphrasitic poetry, from the Greek “ekphrasis” (description), engages visual works of art through poetic language. This video explores my favorite ekphrastic poem -- a 2004 selection from American poet Wendell Berry’s vast collection of spiritual, nature-oriented Sabbath Poems, which in Berry’s words, were written “in silence, in solitude, mainly out of doors.” This poem was inspired by the watercolor painting Jacob’s Dream by the visionary English artist and poet William Blake, which depicts in a unique spiral stairway the famous Biblical story of Jacob’s ladder from Genesis 28.

Berry’s poem does much more than simply attempt to put the painting's images into words. As I explain in this video essay, he engages this painting and scripture passage to “universalize” Jacob’s experience, urging us all to view our daily work and the ground beneath our feet with a sense of sacredness.

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*Music (Creative Commons Attribution)
- “Open Sea Morning” by Puddle of Infinity ([ Ссылка ])
- “Promise” by Whitesand ([ Ссылка ])

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*Sources
- William Blake, “To my dear Friend Mrs Anna Flaxman” – [ Ссылка ]
- Wendell Berry, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” in Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community: Eight Essays – [ Ссылка ]
- Wendell Berry, “Sabbath Poem 1, 2004 (After the painting Jacob’s Dream by William Blake and Genesis 28:11-17)” in This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems – [ Ссылка ]

Text of the poem:

A young man leaving home
For long years to be gone
Might fall asleep and dream,
His head upon a stone.

A stair appears that bends
In spiral toward the light,
The bright Orb where it ends,
Though he sleeps through the night.

Darkened, below the stars,
Angels in constant motion
Walk up and down the stairs.
Delight and clear devotion

Make graceful all they do.
The light and dark are bound,
Heaven to all below,
Bright stair and stony ground

In one light joined. In sleep
The dreamer wakes. He sees
Above the stars the deep
Of heaven opened. Is

He living, then, his part
Of Heaven’s earthly life?
And what shall be the art
By which this sight can live?

Darkened upon the earth,
He fills with light, is made
A witness to high Truth
And so a man afraid.

His land – this meager sod,
These stones, this low estate –
Is the household of God.
And it is Heaven’s gate

Tags - #williamblake, #wendellberry, #poetryanalysis, poem analysis, analyzing poetry, literary analysis,. high school English, Christian poetry, Christian art, Bible, Biblical poetry

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