(25 October 1914 - 7 January 1972 / McAlester, Oklahoma)

poet John Berryman
#133 on top 500 poets
John Berryman
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John Allyn Berryman was an American poet and scholar, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and was considered a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry. His best-known work is The Dream Songs.

Life and Career

John Berryman was born and raised in Oklahoma until the age of 10, when his father, John Smith, a banker, and his mother, Martha, who was a schoolteacher, moved to Tampa, Florida. In 1926, in Florida, when the poet was twelve, his father shot and killed himself just outside his son's bedroom window. Berryman was haunted by his father's suicide for the rest of his life and would ... more »

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Popular Poems

  • Dream Song 1: Huffy Henry hid the day
  • Dream Song 10: There were strange gather...
  • Dream Song 100: How this woman came by t...
  • Dream Song 101: A shallow lake, with man...
  • Dream Song 102: The sunburnt terraces wh...
  • Dream Song 103: I consider a song will b...
  • Dream Song 104: Welcome, grinned Henry, ...
  • Dream Song 105: As a kid I believed in d...
  • Dream Song 106: 28 July
  • Dream Song 107: Three 'coons come at his...
  • Dream Song 11: His mother goes. The moth...
  • Dream Song 110: It was the blue & pl...
  • Dream Song 111: I miss him. When I get b...
  • Dream Song 112: My framework is broken, ...
More poems of John Berryman »

Quotations

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  • Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
    After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
    we ourselves flash and yearn,
    and moreover my mother told me as a boy
    (repea...
    John Berryman (1914-1972), U.S. poet. 77 Dream Songs, no. 14 (1964).
    29 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''Bats have no bankers and they do not drink
    and cannot be arrested and pay no tax
    and, in general, bats have it made.''
    John Berryman (1914-1972), U.S. poet. 77 Dream Songs, no. 63 (1964).
    22 person liked.
    		8 person did not like.
  • ''"A poet is a man speaking to men":
    But I am then a poet, am I not?—''
    John Berryman (1914-1972), U.S. poet. A Professor's Song (l. 10-11). . . New Oxford Book of American Verse, The. Richard Ellmann, ed. (1976) Oxfor...
    8 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''Filling her compact & delicious body
    with chicken paprika, she glanced at me
    twice.''
    John Berryman (1914-1972), U.S. poet. Filling Her Compact (l. 1-3). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxfor...
    10 person liked.
    		4 person did not like.
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Comments about John Berryman

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  • Kenneth Belknap (4/1/2011 10:37:00 PM)

    Came here just to find some of the Dream Songs. Are there lots of poets who are unreadable on this sight?

    9 person liked.
    		9 person did not like.
  • Aj Pinquot (6/27/2010 7:48:00 PM)

    Is there any way to actually, you know, read the effing poems?

    16 person liked.
    		9 person did not like.
  • Ravi Avasthi (8/30/2009 11:27:00 AM)

    too early to comment, just opened my account

    5 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
Read all 3 comments »

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