Berryman’s Dream Song 235
It’s hard to imagine how Berryman could have stated more clearly, or more effectively, the terrible effect his father’s suicide had on him than here in Song
235
Tears Henry shed for poor old Hemingway
Hemingway in despair, Hemingway at the end,
the end of Hemingway,
tears in a diningroom in Indiana
and that was years ago, before his marriage say,
God to him no worse luck send.
Save us from shotguns & fathers’ suicides.
It all depends on who you’re the father of
if you want to kill yourself-
a bad example, murder of oneself,
the final death, in a paroxysm, of love
for which good mercy hides?
A girl at the door: ‘A few coppers pray’
But to return, to return to Hemingway
that cruel & gifted man.
Mercy! my father; do not pull the trigger
or all my life I’ll suffer from your anger
killing what you began.
“God to him [but especially to ME] no worse luck send.“
One almost wonders if Berryman could somehow see his own fate in Hemingway’s suicide after all the times Hemingway ranted about his father’s weakness in taking his life because he (allegedly) couldn’t stand up to his wife.
The poems seem like the ultimate testament to “or all my life I’ll suffer from your anger/ killing what you began.”
loren
This poem certainly lays bare his thoughts on his father’s suicide. And (Papa) Hemingway’s suicide must have been awful for Berryman to contemplate, as it may have suggested to him that writing may not bring salvation, ultimately.
In Of Suicide Berryman wrote “Reflexions on suicide, & on my father, possess me.”
Mike Ivory — 3:10 am January 16, 2007
“The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parent.” – C.G. Jung
The terrible emotional burden that John Berryman and Ernest Hemingway carried throughout their lives clearly became unbearable, and took nothing away from what they were able to accomplish creatively, despite that burden.
One of Ernest Hemingway’s gifted granddaughters, Margaux, named after a wine, changed her named to Margot after she stopped drinking, but continued to suffer from an eating disorder and committed suicide.
An old friend of mine, an insightful man who loved the natural world, had stopped drinking for many years, but within a year of starting to drink again, he killed himself on his birthday. Although my friend’s father did not commit suicide, I would be surprised to find that my friend was the first suicide in the history of his family.
The combination of alcoholism and a family history of depression and/or suicide can make death seem like the only option for an intelligent, sensitive, vulnerable and emotionally exhausted person.