August 25, 2007
John Berryman, The Dream Songs (FSG, paperback 2007). 427 pages. $18.
I'm not quite sure what happened but I have actually recommended twice within the month that two of my non-poet friends read the Dream Songs. They were both looking for good reads, and this was the first thing that came to mind. It forced me to pick up the third copy I've owned--this is a book that I give away on moves and then rebuy shortly after--and man song #14 (Life, friends, is boring...), while making its way into all those anthologies and being a good stand alone poem and all, does little justice to the overall accruing strength of the whole. It may not be at the level of Leaves of Grass or the Cantos, but I need to reread the thing and consider why I think this might be the case.
I'm not quite sure what happened but I have actually recommended twice within the month that two of my non-poet friends read the Dream Songs. They were both looking for good reads, and this was the first thing that came to mind. It forced me to pick up the third copy I've owned--this is a book that I give away on moves and then rebuy shortly after--and man song #14 (Life, friends, is boring...), while making its way into all those anthologies and being a good stand alone poem and all, does little justice to the overall accruing strength of the whole. It may not be at the level of Leaves of Grass or the Cantos, but I need to reread the thing and consider why I think this might be the case.
Labels: Books
posted by Mr. Horton at 9:41 AM
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