Dream Song 29 Violence Quotes

Okay. This sitting might not count as an act of violence, but it is certainly an aggressive act. Henry doesn't like it, but still the thing stays put and seems to have no intention of getting up anytime soon ("if he had a hundred years / & more […] Henry could not make good"). Think of it this way—if you've ever had an older sibling that sat on your chest and tortured you in some way, you know this act of sitting was not an act of kindness. There may have been some laughter at the start, but things usually turned ugly, right? Come on, we can't be the only ones. You know what we're talking about. So, the poem's very first line hints at the violent imagery that will build throughout the poem's next two stanzas.

Here again, nothing seems especially violent about this simile. But remember, Berryman is sneaky—especially when he's dealing with things like dreams and the subconscious. On the surface we experience this simile as a comparison between some mysterious "thing" and a Sienese face, but the way Berryman chose to describe that face is significant. That word, "grave" describes the face's expression, but it also puts lots of other things in our minds, like that other kind of grave (you know, the ones the dead bodies are in). When we see the word "grave," there is some part of our brains that thinks of death, and with thoughts of death often come all the violent ways one can end up that way. With the addition of one little word, Berryman is able to carry that undertone of violence from the first stanza into the second. See, we told you he was sneaky.

It took a dozen or so lines to come to the surface, but the imagery takes a very violent turn in the poem's last stanza. Nothing sneaky about this—there's "hacking" and there are "pieces." Enough said. Reading the poem for the first time, you might have felt a little blindsided by this violent imagery, but after reading it a couple times, you can kind of see it coming. The intensity of Henry's sadness and guilt has to be the result of something pretty dark. We finally see the cause in the last stanza. Henry's violent thoughts have him down in a big way. But at least he never actually did those terrible things he thought he did. Or did he? You have to ask yourself, is this speaker really the most reliable source? If his syntax is any indication, this is a pretty mixed-up guy. Shmoop recommends holding off on sending Henry that party invitation until an independent investigation confirms that, "nobody's missing." Anyone have the number for the C.S.I. team?