Berryman's life of tortured bardic alcoholism, and the piercing eye he turned on himself and (sometimes) the world, have aroused respect, if not reverence, among reviewers and critics. (p. 22)

[Under the languid exterior of a Dream Song from Henry's Fate and Other Poems] seethe images of Henry as a soul in hell; a Doubter, like Thomas; a clock-like, unnatural man, kept going only by drugs; a junkie waiting for his fix; a crucified thing like Christ and the clock. At suggesting torment the poem works better than it deserves.

Apart from the useful personification device, Berryman has the poetic equivalent of 'it', which seems to reside in his language: colloquial, compressed, jerky, cute, unpompous. He also has a drunkard's fatal charm. One would always have bought him another drink. A peculiarity of the Dream Songs is that they are so informal and repetitive (Berryman apparently once said he...