Dream Song 14 Analysis

Reading "Dream Song 14" for the first time, you might have had moments where you thought there was some kind of form or pattern at work—and then the feeling faded and you were left with an invisi...

When you read "Dream Song 14," you might think these lines sound more like a conversation with a friend who's griping about being bored than a poem. Like, it gets a little poem-y at the end with th...

We don't get much of a sense of place from "Dream Song 14." For the first two stanzas, the speaker is just talking to us. He mentions the sky and the sea, but we don't necessarily think those eleme...

Despite the title, "Dream Song 14" doesn't sound very song-like to us. It lacks a regular rhyme scheme and alliteration, both of which can give poems a sing-song-y feel. But the voice of the piece...

On the surface, "Dream Song 14" seems like a pretty simple little title. And, in some sense, it is. But since we're all about digging deeper, let's break it down and see if we can't uncover somethi...

Berryman poems, especially his "Dream Songs," are pretty easy to spot. Those six-line stanzas we discussed back in the Form section tend to stand out. And that Henry guy, who loves to refer to hims...

"Dream Song 14" is a pretty pleasant hike for the first two stanzas, but the air starts to get a little thin in the third. Watch out for light-headedness and perhaps a mild headache; this one's no...

Berryman Rocks: well, at least he inspired the band Hold Steady to rock. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to check out a live performance of the song "Stuck Between Stations." See if you...

Despite the "flashing and yearning" in the first stanza, this one rates a G.

Achilles (12)Check out Shmoop's mythology section for more about this nearly invincible warrior's "plights and gripes."