Dream Songs - Jeet

Many of the Berryman poems I read were sexains. They have a very unorthodox style and make ample use of liberally interpreted spelling and diction. This lends the poems a personal, casual touch which i found very appealing. Consider the spelling and accent for "f`unnee" in dream song 7. Berryman also has a unique take on grammar. Consider dream song 9 - "if he's still human, see:she love him, see, / therefore she get on the sheriff's mike and howl".

The poems had a very personal feel and the writing style complemented that very well. After reading up on the poet's background, it is apparent why that personal feel is so obvious. The dream songs are a collection of largely confessional poetry with the gentleman Henry serving as an alter ego. The descriptions of Henry are very much a parallel to Berryman's own life.

"In a modesty of death I join my father/ who dared so long agone leave me." This line from dream song 76 is a clear allusion to his father's suicide and perhaps even foreshadows his own life. Dream song 77 narrates Henry's exasperation with life and foreshadows his tragic suicide.
"These fierce and airy occupations, and love, / raved away so many of Henry's years/...his head full/ & his heart full, he's making ready to move on."

In dream song 74, Berryman writes about the lack of love by describing how the holiest and prettiest cities in the world cannot make up for the "unlove" in Henry's life. Some of Berryman's distaste for the world and perhaps his emotional/societal instability is apparent in the following lines - "Henry hates the world. What the world to Henry/ did will not bear thought"

Dream song 5 also captures the confessional nature of Berryman's poetry.
"Henry sat in the bar and was odd,/off in the glass from the glass,/ at odds wif de world and its god,/ his wife is a complete nothing,/ St Stephen getting even."

This single stanza touches upon Berryman's alcohol abuse, his anti-social streak and his struggle with a failed marriage.

Having said all that, I was very confused about large parts of the poems.