profile of john berryman [ about john berryman ]
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Explanation:
John Berryman grew up as ordinary as his given name. That is, until the age of 12, whenhisfathercommitted suicide, shooting himself right outside of John's bedroom window. Such a horrific event permanently darkened John's psyche and would eventually show up in much of his poetry. His mother quickly remarried to their landlord, with whom she'd apparently been having an affair, and moved the family north to New York. John later took the name Berryman, after his stepfather.
In 1939, Berryman graduated from Columbia, solidifying a serious passion for poetry, and then moved to school in Cambridge, England, on a Kellett Fellowship. While in Cambridge, he met such famous poets as W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and Dylan Thomas. He eventually returned to the states and began to teach, hired by such prestigious schools like Harvard and Princeton. He also grew deeply involved in researching and writing literature.
John Allyn McAlpin 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 is considered a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry. His best-known work is The Dream Songs
Answer:
John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) 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 is 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 John Allyn Smith, Jr., on October 25, 1914 in McAlester, Oklahoma, where he was raised until the age of ten, when his father, John Smith, a banker, and his mother, Martha (also known as Peggy), a schoolteacher, moved to Florida. In 1926, in Clearwater, Florida, when Berryman was 11 years old, his father shot and killed himself. Smith was jobless at the time, and he and Martha were filing for divorce.[1] Berryman was haunted by his father's death for the rest of his life and wrote about his struggle to come to terms with it in much of his poetry.
John Berryman was born John Allyn Smith, Jr., on October 25, 1914 in McAlester, Oklahoma, where he was raised until the age of ten, when his father, John Smith, a banker, and his mother, Martha (also known as Peggy), a schoolteacher, moved to Florida. In 1926, in Clearwater, Florida, when Berryman was 11 years old, his father shot and killed himself. Smith was jobless at the time, and he and Martha were filing for divorce.[1] Berryman was haunted by his father's death for the rest of his life and wrote about his struggle to come to terms with it in much of his poetry.In "Dream Song #143", he wrote, "That mad drive [to commit suicide] wiped out my childhood. I put him down/while all the same on forty years I love him/stashed in Oklahoma/besides his brother Will". In "Dream Song #145", he also wrote of his father:
After his father's death at the rear entrance to Kipling Arms, where the Smiths rented an apartment, the poet's mother, within months, married John Angus McAlpin Berryman in New York City.[3] The poet was renamed John Allyn McAlpin Berryman. Berryman's mother also changed her first name from Peggy to Jill.[4] Although his stepfather later divorced his mother, Berryman and his stepfather stayed on good terms.[5] With both his mother and stepfather working, his mother decided to send him to the South Kent School, a private boarding school in Connecticut.[4] Berryman then attended Columbia College, where he was president of the Philolexian Society, joined the Boar's Head Society,[6] edited The Columbia Review, and studied under the literary scholar and poet Mark Van Doren.[4] Berryman later credited Van Doren with sparking his interest in writing poetry seriously. For two years, Berryman also studied overseas at Clare College, Cambridge, on a Kellett Fellowship from Columbia.[5] He graduated in 1936.