Clearing is familiar history; ecology; memoir: a poem about the making of a poem—the making of two poems, the one we read and the other: a farm and forty acres…. Berry is the most subtle of American naturists. The vocabulary of his emotion is even-tempered; far from unpoetic, he deprecates the more showy forensics that have commonly underlined his subject: despoliation and the way back. Clearing is a ruminating lyrical monologue in seven principal sections, delivered by a man who has chosen at great cost—in the worldly meaning, beside the expense of spirit entailed—to do as well as to be or to talk: actively to conserve, not be content with polemics on conservation. And the consequence—never achieved, always in process of achievement—is far from satisfying the poet who thinks, as it does satisfy the man who toils. "Work Song," the most troubled, and...