Sometime they might look at what I did with the "Henry" persona, in the Island Road sonnets, in Stubborn, etc.

Berryman put on the "Henry" mask, and recorded the nuclear decay of the Confessional mode.

With me, "Henry" came back, Berrymannish, Joyce-ish. In his Byzantium, his Dublin-Petersburg fortress, in his Little Rhody world.

The only one to show any critical interest, so far, has been that other masquer, Kent Johnson.

The fictional "Henry" was a means to an end : to provide a narrative context for the poetry.

The authority of poetry is the authority of a mask. That is, how you sculpt the mask - what materials you apply to funnel the voice, the tone - affects the transmission of the "content" & themes.