The dream song is an art of poetry written by an American poet John Berryman entailing two poems: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest(1968), and 77 Dream Songs(1964). This book by John Berryman is ranked among the most groundbreaking books in America in the 20th century. The song is divided into six stanzas, which are presented in the form of six lines. The book entails a character named Henry, who is shown to have a resemblance to Berryman. When people misinterpreted the first volume as an autobiography, he defended his poem stating that he was not the main character in the poem, but it was henry. Although Henry’s life had a strong resemblance to his, he said that he was not Henry, but Henry was him. He insisted that he was a real person who could pay tax, but Henry was not.
In the book, Berryman introduces an unnamed man who was a friend of Henry and used a black dialect. Kelvin Young, a black American poet, criticized the poem saying that the use of a black dialect was not necessary for the context as its sometimes offensive and frustrating. John Berryman replies by saying that the song was not about him, but Henry, who could have multiple personalities in the book. He insisted that Henry could be we, I, he, and you since the poem presented a situation of mixed personalities. To show his disparate personalities, there is a constant change in the voice from low to high, slang to archaic language, slant rhythm to full in an attempt to render blues music( the devil’s music). In Berryman’s words, he was against the act of polite modernism in America. In the poem, he incorporates all sorts of Americans in the manner that they were liberating and fearless.