Songs and a Couple (Dark) Laughs
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 pretty safe bet it's by Berryman. (And if it features a guy named Henry, bet the farm—it's Berryman for sure.)
Lots of Berryman poems also feature a kind of dark humor. In his 1964 review of 77 Dream Songs, the poet Robert Lowell wrote, "When they don't make you cry—these poems will make you laugh." Berryman himself once said of The Dream Songs that he wanted each poem to contain at least, "one stroke of some damned serious humor." He was shooting for "gravity of matter," but with a "gaiety of manner." In other words, Berryman wanted to tackle some pretty bleak stuff, but he wanted to interject some of life's dark humor and absurdity.
So, if you find a poem exploring the psychological landscape of dreams while interjecting some moments of odd levity, Berryman is your boy.
Take a look at Berryman's "Dream Song 14" for more of John being John (or… Henry).