Dream Song 29 Analysis

"Dream Song 29" doesn't fit into any of the traditional forms. It's not, for example, a sonnet or a sestina. There isn't an easy label we can put on this one. But that's not to say Berryman wasn't...

Warning: things are about to get a little weird. Here's the thing. Henry is the subject of this poem but he's also the speaker. We know. It's confusing. Just give us a paragraph or two and we'll tr...

Berryman doesn't give us much in the way of setting, but with all the talk of dreams, sleep (or the lack thereof), and weeping, we get kind of an indoor, bedroom sort of feeling from this one.The w...

We have a speaker talking about himself in the third person, like he's another character, separate from himself. It sounds kind of mixed up right? When we consider the speaker's state of mind, this...

"Dream Song 29" seems like a poem-y enough title. But what does it really do? Does it help us understand the poem? Well, let's break it down and take a closer look.First off, we have "Dream." The w...

Remember. Berryman wrote close to 400 of these songs. If you come across a poem with "Dream Song" in the title and it's written in those sestets we talked about back in "Form and Meter," it's a pre...

Better pack a sweater. It's a short hike, but it's easy to get lost along the way. Take your official Shmoop-compass to keep you on the right track, and try to enjoy the view along the way.

Berryman inspired lots of writers and readers, and he inspired some good rock & roll too. The band The Hold Steady has a Berryman-inspired song "Stuck Between Stations." See if you can catch th...

Sex? Nope. Not in this one. Still, Shmoop is going to hit this one with a PG for violence and because some of the other 385 Songs do tend to get a little racy.