HENRY'S FATE by JOHN BERRYMAN
Selected by JOHN HAFFENDEN
94 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
$7.95.
Posthumous selections of unpublished poetry should be viewed suspiciously. The dead poet may have had good aesthetic reasons for keeping some of his work to himself. Fortunately, Henry's Fate does not malign the memory of John Berryman, who five years ago committed suicide at age 57. Critic John Haffenden has gathered 45 "Dream Songs" written after 77 Dream Songs (1964) and His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968)—the two books that certified Berryman as a major American writer. Henry, the fast-talking middle-aged hero of the dream songs, continued...
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