John Berryman - Dream Song 384

This poem has such an intense feeling to it, you can feel the rage that Henry feels against his father. The poignancy factor comes from this hate that he has, when he talks about his father’s suicide, and how he cared more about his banking business then he did for his son, Henry. How Henry wants to rip open the casket, see him there dead being consumed by the insects, then tear about his body with the axe. I also feel that there is something lying underneath what is being blatantly said here. When he says that he has “often before…made this awful pilgrimage”, it shows that he still goes to visit his dead father rather often. A man that truly hated his father I feel would not actually go see him, so there is an underlying affection for his father, who would be part of what brought him into this world in the first place, which is brought about in the last line of the poem. (Will heft the ax once more, his final card, and fell it on the start)