Symbol Analysis
With the word "Dream" in the title, it's tough to ignore the idea of all things sleepy and dreamy. But when we take a closer look at #29, it seems like Henry isn't doing much sleeping. Maybe he should try a glass of warm milk, or counting sheep? Why the insomnia, Henry? Let's take a look.
- Title: There it is, right in the title: "Dream." When we see the word dream, we usually think of something that's happening while we sleep. Dreams occur in that fantastic, internal, alternate realm of the subconscious. It's a place more easily accessed when all the noise, distraction and other assorted stimuli are blocked out—like when we are all tucked in, lights out (okay, maybe a night-light), safe in our bedrooms. When we see the title "Dream Song 29," we are expecting something associated with the previously mentioned realm. That's not what Berryman gives us.
- Line 3: Weeping and sleepless is not how we would expect to find Henry in this one. Shouldn't he be happily asleep in his dream-world? This sounds more like "Waking Up from a Terrible Nightmare 29." The fact that Henry isn't sleeping brings into question his state of consciousness. Has he confused reality with the world of imagination and dreams? If so, what does that say about Henry's mental stability? All of this questioning comes out of the juxtaposition of the title with the word "sleepless." Nice job, John.
- Line 17: Here we have Henry in the wee hours, "in the dawn," counting up the people he hasn't "hacked up." This sounds terrible. There isn't any mention of Henry actually sleeping and if we go back to the "weeping and sleepless" from the first stanza, it seems like Henry is coming out of some altered state other than sleep (given the poet's history, something like an alcoholic drinking binge would be a possible explanation) during which he isn't sure what he did or didn't really do. It reminds us of what it's like waking up from a dream before you can really tell if what you remember and feel is a left over part of the dream or something from reality itself. In the end, it feels like the dream in the title and the implied sleep function more as a metaphor for certain conditions (mental illness, substance abuse) when the line between the real and the imagined become hopelessly blurred.