http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFeZOhlmZmw
Read the poem here:
http://www.inspirationalstories.com/poems/dream-song-5-henry-sats-in-de-bar-was-odd-john-berryman-poem/
We'll go ahead and skip to Song 5. In the first stanza, we find Henry in a bar again. I imagine an airport bar, since we find Henry on an airplane in the second stanza. He is upset; feels the world is against him. We are here introduced to Henry's wife, who he caustically claims is "a complete nothing." However, "wife" may also be "life," spoken like baby-talk, which Berryman uses often throughout the Songs. Thus, this insult may extend to Henry as well as his wife. Henry identifies with St. Stephen, a Christian who was martyred by being stoned. To get even with God, Henry gets "stoned" at the bar.
In the next stanza, we encounter a more jubilant Henry. Perhaps this is because Henry is above the world now, flying. Henry witnesses a statue of the virgin Mary on a mountain, a beam of light shining on her. Henry is so moved within that he believes it is manifested outwardly: the plane shakes. Interesting to note that the line, "his thoughts made pockets & the plane buckt" is the name of one of Berryman's previous poetry collections.
http://www.inspirationalstories.com/poems/dream-song-5-henry-sats-in-de-bar-was-odd-john-berryman-poem/
We'll go ahead and skip to Song 5. In the first stanza, we find Henry in a bar again. I imagine an airport bar, since we find Henry on an airplane in the second stanza. He is upset; feels the world is against him. We are here introduced to Henry's wife, who he caustically claims is "a complete nothing." However, "wife" may also be "life," spoken like baby-talk, which Berryman uses often throughout the Songs. Thus, this insult may extend to Henry as well as his wife. Henry identifies with St. Stephen, a Christian who was martyred by being stoned. To get even with God, Henry gets "stoned" at the bar.
In the next stanza, we encounter a more jubilant Henry. Perhaps this is because Henry is above the world now, flying. Henry witnesses a statue of the virgin Mary on a mountain, a beam of light shining on her. Henry is so moved within that he believes it is manifested outwardly: the plane shakes. Interesting to note that the line, "his thoughts made pockets & the plane buckt" is the name of one of Berryman's previous poetry collections.
The final stanza locates Henry in a hospital. What a ride! The final surreal image of the "image of the dead on the fingernail / of a newborn child" seems to me to say that people carry with them their ancestors from birth. Especially significant to Berryman, who carries with him the death of his father heavily, a yoke slung across his back.
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