John Berryman's Poetry and Prose

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Tanka surveys.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poet peers: Delmore Schwartz. Elizabeth Bishop.
John Berryman. Randall Jarrell. Robert Lowell. Sylvia Plath.

J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).

Data.

"By insisting that the poet's actual life can be a valid subject for poetry, that personality is just as important as craft, Berryman was voicing the common feelings of his generation. ... as he grew more convinced of his artistic path, his condemnation of Eliotic impersonality grew more strident. In a 1957 essay, Eliot's theory has been demoted from 'perverse and valuable' to 'amusing,' and by 1960 it has become 'intolerable.' In 1962 Berryman turned to sarcasm: 'One thing critics not themselves writers of poetry occasionally forget is that poetry is composed by actually human beings, and tracts of it are very closely about them'."
[p. 120 of The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch].

Time Line.

1914

Born in Oklahoma, USA.

1926

Suicide of his father, John Smith, a Minneapolis banker.

1936

Graduated from Columbia University.

1936-1938

Heavily influenced by W.B. Yeats, whom Berryman said he "didn't so much wish to resemble as to be" [p. 103 of The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch].

1939

Death of W.B. Yeats.

1940

Contributed (with Randall Jarrell to an anthology of Five Young American Poets.

1948

Poetry: The Dispossessed, 1st full-length book.

1953

Homage to Mistress Bradstreet published in Partisan Review.

1954

His wife leaves him.

Fired from University of Iowa.

1956

Homage to Mistress Bradstreet published as a book.

1964

Poetry: 77 Dream Songs (first volume of Dream Songs).

1966

Much saddened by death of his long-time close friend, Delmore Schwartz.

1968

Poetry: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (second volume of Dream Songs).

1969

Poetry: Dream Songs; combined 77 Dream Songs and His Toy, His Dream, His Rest.

1970

Poetry: Love & Fame.

1972

Died (suicide) in Minneapolis.

Poetry: Delusions Etc.

2005

One of six poets in The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch:

Buy 'The Wounded Surgeon' by Adam Kirsch

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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