John Berryman

John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in the "confessional" school of poetry. His 77 Dream Songs (1964) won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Quotes

• Venus on the half-shell was found a dish
  To madden a fanatic: from the nave
  Rolled obloquy and lust.
  • "At Chinese Checkers", st. 14. Short Poems (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967), p. 41

77 Dream Songs (1964)

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

• My psychiatrist can lick your psychiatrist.
  • No. 3, st. 1 (A Stimulant for an Old Beast)

• However things hurt, men hurt worse.
  • No. 10, st. 3

•    Two daiquiris
  withdrew into a corner of the gorgeous room
  and one told the other a lie.
  • No. 16, st. 3

External links

• Encyclopedic article on John Berryman on Wikipedia