This document provides biographical information about American poet John Berryman and summarizes sections from his long poem Dream Songs. It notes that Berryman had a difficult childhood including the death of his father, but had academic success. He is best known for Dream Songs, featuring the character Henry, which explores themes of alienation. Berryman ultimately died by suicide in 1972. The summaries then analyze sections of Dream Songs focusing on syntactic ambiguities and word choices that contribute to the fragmented perspective and uncertainty within the work.

1. Week Twenty John Berryman (1914-1972) Dream Songs

2. Biography Born 1914 in McAlester, Oklahoma. Son of Catholic parents, whose restaurant went bust in 1926. Father shot dead in 1926: police pronounce suicide, though evidence suggested foul play. A successful academic career at school counterbalanced by social alienation, which led to a suicide attempt. While at Columbia and Cambridge, influenced by Yeats and Shakespeare.

3. Best known for Dream Songs , a long poem in 395 parts, featuring an antihero named ‘Henry’. In 1972, following a period marked by ‘erratic’ behaviour and waning critical success, Berryman threw himself to his death from a bridge in Minnesota.

4. Dream Songs - 1 Huffy Henry hid the day, unappeasable Henry sulked. I see his point, - a trying to put things over. It was the thought that they thought they could do it made Henry wicked and away. But he should have come out and talked. All the world like a woolen lover once did seem on Henry’s side. Then came a departure. Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought. I don’t see how Henry, pried open for all the world to see, survived. What he has now to say is a long wonder the world can bear & be. Once in a sycamore I was glad all at the top, and I sang. Hard on the land wears the strong sea and empty grows every bed

5. Huffy Henry hid the day, unappeasable Henry sulked. I see his point, - a trying to put things over. It was the thought that they thought they could do it made Henry wicked and away. But he should have come out and talked. Space: signifies what? How does is relate to the word ‘hid’? Transitive or intransitive? Indexicals: fragmented perspective Relate to adjectives above Indefinite article: Ambiguous: his or their or my? How does this choice condition ‘put things over’? Absent verb (‘go’)? How does this affect the adjectives? If it were present, how would the modal verb operate differently? Predication: state or effect? Event, perception, language.

6. All the world like a woolen lover once did seem on Henry’s side. Then came a departure. Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought. I don’t see how Henry, pried open for all the world to see, survived. Unravel the syntax: To what does ‘once’ apply? To what does ‘seem’ apply? Is the world ‘like a woolen lover’ generally, or only when at Henry’s side, or only when seeming at Henry’s side? The verb ‘come’ is inadequate to delineate the meaning, suggesting both its physical and sequential dimensions Comic irony on the arrival of the departure.

7. What he has now to say is a long wonder the world can bear & be. Once in a sycamore I was glad all at the top, and I sang. Hard on the land wears the strong sea and empty grows every bed Subject deferral Transitive or intransitive? How is meaning conditioned by this choice?

8. Some ideas: Spaces Perspective Absent verbs, nouns, etc Types within word classes (ie types of predication; transitive and intransitive verbs) Syntactical ambiguity Lexical ambiguity Multiple reference Indexicals