Depression
Many of the poems within the anthology The Dream Songs deals to some extent with the mental instability of the main character Henry. For example, in Dream Song 1 he complains about his falling of luck, while Dream Song 76 goes as far as the consideration of suicide or death. As most of the poems are based around dreams and are in a strange connection to the author of the poems, the connection back onto the life of John Berryman has often been made.
Boredom
Connected to the theme of depression, some of the poems deal, either explicitly or implicitly, with boredom. Dream Song 14 explicitly has boredom and how boring life has become to Henry, as the main theme. Others, like Dream Song 76, deal with boredom as the main reason for darker thoughts. Henry cannot deal with how mundane life has become and considers suicide.
Self- Deprication
Many literary critics have noticed some parallels between the main character Henry and the author. And while John Berryman reveals that many concepts connect the two he clearly states that Henry and him are not meant to be seen as autobiographical. The characters self-deprecating tendencies, his hatred for himself and his own life are very apparent in most of the poems of the anthology. He is bored of himself, he considers suicide and is not worthy of life.
Toxic Friendship
The only other recurring character in the anthology, next to Henry is an unnamed friend who calls him Mr. Bones. This other friend is unfriendly, suggest self harm and other atrocities. According to the author and through evidence of some public readings of poems, this character is racist, wears "blackface" and speaks in a southern American tongue of English. This revelation of Berryman has resulted in heavy criticism from the black intellectual community of the USA.
