NEED HELP: JOHN BERRYMAN’S “SONNET 25″…please, AP English 12 analysis…I am so lost?
I really need any help I can get with this poem…I have to write a 3-5 page paper tonight and it’s do tomorrow….so any analysis, summary, poetry conventions…anything that someone can give me would be a huge help…..
here is the poem
Low as I hunch home late and fever-tired,
Near you not, nearing the sharer I desired,
Toward whom till now I sailed back… but that sailing
Yaws, from the cabin orders like a failing
Dribble, the stores disordered and then fired
Skid wild, the men are glaring, the mate has wired
‘Hopeless’. Lockt in and humming, the Captain’s nailing
a false log to the lurching table. Lies
and passion sing in the cabin on the voyage home,
the burgee should fly Jolly Roger. Wind
madness like the tackle of a crane–outcries
ascend–around to heave him from the foam
irresponsible, since all the stars rain blind.
Thank you so much
I am sorry the first line is
Sometimes the night echoes to prideless wailing

October 20th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Concentrate of the image of a ship at sea in a stormy night. “Jolly Roger” is the skull and crossbones flag pirates flew, btw.
It’s a good poem and if you unlock this one yourself, you should come away with an appreciation for the power of Berryman’s words. I became a huge fan of his work after doing an assignment much similar to this one.
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