"Dreamsongs" borrows no more from J. Berryman than an excellent title, for the gist of the introductory poems is likely (luckily) indeterminate, alternating in fierce dialectic between (and among) the wildest scatology and the most sensitive and lyrical paean to human nostalgia and regret. The poet in this first section flexes imagination in service of the widest range of public (and private) experience, from terza rima to heroic couplets to "free...