Word: poem
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...When the poem begins. Thuy Kieu has returned to her family, and her sister proposes that she and Kim Trong marry...
...there is any central theme to the diverse assortment of poems in Delusions, Etc., it is a general expression of desperation and a hope for some sort of release from life. Berryman's father committed suicide and the memory of that event sharply marks poems such as "Tampa Stomp" and "Old Man Goes South Again Alone." The lines from a poem called "No" are very explicit, when Berryman claims that "I faint for some soft & solid & sudden way out as quiet as hemlock in that Attic prose." In the penultimate poem of the collection, "The Facts & Issues," Berryman states...
...FAITH never entirely defined accompanies Berryman's despair. It is a faith that invokes God as a protector but does not explore the Divine nature. It revolves less around God than around the poet's personal need for Him. The first section of Delusions, Etc. is composed of eight poems patterned on the Roman Catholic liturgical offices of the day, from Lauds to Compline. Other poems in the collection include a number of prayers ("Somber Prayer," "Overseas Prayer," "Usual Prayer," and "The Prayer of the Middle-Aged Man") and a thanksgiving. There is also a poem in honor...
...primary emphasis of his poetry is on the need for some sort of protections. In a poem on Dylan Thomas, Berryman claims that in his last years Thomas expressed a great interest in the Garden of Eden and its flowers, but little in their creator. The point seems equally applicable to Berryman. He was more interested in enjoying the creation than in glorifying the Creator. This poetry is not a celebration of God but the expression of a modern man's need...
Expressions of personal misery do not dominate every poem in Delusions, Etc., The 43 poems of the collection fall into five sections. The first and last of these sections are sober sets of prayers. But the second division is composed of a group of five poems on Washington, Beethoven, Emily Dickinson, George Trakl and Dylan Thomas. This group is followed by 13 miscellaneous poems with subjects as diverse as suicide, Christ and the fall of man. The fourth section contains two poems reprinted from the April 1969 Harvard Advocate. The poems, "Henry's Understanding" and "Henry by Night," were offshoots...