LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: John Berryman was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet who taught at the University of Minnesota for much of his career. His most famous works, including 'The Dream Songs' and 'His Toy, His Dream, His Rest' were published in the 1960s. However, his timeless words are now seeing acclaim with a new generation, thanks to the hit HBO drama 'Succession'.
The hit series follows the story of the Roy siblings as they fight for control of the powerful family's media and entertainment empire. The final episodes are notably named after phrases in Berryman's poem 'Dream Song 29' -- 'Nobody Is Ever Missing', 'This Is Not For Tears', 'All the Bells Say', and 'With Open Eyes'. Now, expert reviewer Christopher Stevens has predicted how the series finale might unravel using hints from Berryman's obscure poetry.
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Stevens has seen "every engrossing second of the billionaire family saga" and believes the climax is somewhere hidden in the aforementioned poetic references, according to the Daily Mail. "Kendall [Roy] and Roman [Roy] used their media power to influence the US election so nakedly that they risked destroying Waystar Royco's credibility and its share price. It's not hard to imagine a collapse on the stock exchange and Matsson buying them out of bankruptcy for a nominal $1," Stevens wrote in a review for Mail on Sunday. "But that can't all happen in a single day. What could happen though, in an instant, is everything Kendall dreads – his exposure as a killer."
'Ending is hinted in the title'
Stevens noted how Ken had been "a haunted man" ever since he crashed his car while under the influence and killed his passenger. "Since the night he crashed his car while drunk and stoned, killing his passenger, Ken has been a haunted man. Others know his secret, including Logan's ex-bodyguard," he continued. "This ending is hinted at heavily in the title. Each series has concluded with an episode that takes its name from words of a sonnet called Dream Song 29 by American poet John Berryman."
A tragedy or comedy?
"Tonight's episode is called With Open Eyes, a line in the second verse of the poem. The volume in which this sonnet appears is 77 Dream Songs, a collection of poems that won Berryman the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry," Stevens said of the series finale tonight. "It is about a man haunted by a death, and No 29 is explicit in its foreboding. The man cannot forget the dead face. It weighs on him, 'so heavy, if he had a hundred years and more, and weeping, sleepless,' he could never stop thinking about it." The expert reviewer noted that Kendall wouldn't be able to handle it if that secret became public. "He has often seemed on the brink of suicide. Perhaps, in the end, Succession really will be a tragedy and not a comedy at all," Stevens predicted.
Peter Campion, an English professor at the University of Minnesota, paid tribute to Berryman after the late Minnesota poet saw acclaim in the hit HBO series. "He knew a lot about drama and the dramatics of a line and a phrase, and the voice and tone," Campion told Fox 9, noting that Berryman's work is the ideal complement to 'Succession' with its themes of greed, power, and control. Commenting on the series finale titled 'With Open Eyes', the professor explained, "It goes 'With open eyes, he attends, blind,' which I suppose suggests you can look, but you might not see. You can see, but you might not take it in."
The series finale of 'Succession' airs Sunday night, May 28, on HBO.
