John Berryman's Poetry and Prose

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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:
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Links and Books.

Links and Books.


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