Almanac of Story Tellers: John Berryman

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Oct. 25th

 ___________________________________________________________________________

    It is the 298th day of the year, leaving 67 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1914, the poet John Berryman was born in McAlester, Okla.

 

  He told his stories of sadness, of despair, and of infatuation.

   He wrote of his family's history with depression, alcoholism, and suicide. He told of America's  history through pain and pleasure.

    His confessional poetry was sometimes technically daring, with bursts of humor to go along with the inherent melancholy. His writing is intimate, but soaring and hesitant.

    Berryman graduated from Columbia University and studied at Cambridge. He held teaching posts at Wayne State University, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Minnesota.

    

    In addition to his poetry, Berryman wrote short stories. The Lovers and The Imaginary Jew are often used in anthologies. He wrote a biography of the author, Stephen Crane, in 1950.

    But his poetry set him apart. His Dream Songs collection -- some 400 poems titled Dream Song with a number -- tells of his angst and his vivid remembrance of childhood trauma, including his father's suicide.

                                he only, very early in the morning

                                rose with his gun and went outdoors by my window

                                and did what was needed.

    One collection, 77 Dream Songs, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1965.

    Perhaps his best known work is a long epic poem, Homage to Mistress Bradstreet. It is written about the colonial-era poet, Anne Bradstreet, one of the first poets published in America. Berryman wrote lovingly about the poet, and included himself in the works, describing fantasies he had about her.

    Berryman committed suicide in 1972 in Minneapolis when he jumped off the Washington Avenue Bridge into the icy Mississippi River. He later became sort of a muse for the songwriter Craig Finn, who wrote about his death in the song Stuck Between Station.