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John Berryman

(1914 – 1972) Berryman is America’s master of homostrophy—our Yeats, except smarter, hornier and more drunk. (Yeats’ smooth stanzas cure, Berryman’s fracture; Yeats documents dissociation, while Berryman gives caesura psychological meaning.) Berryman’s principle dramatic tool is an “interlocutor.” His first, a strict form, led to Berryman’s Sonnets (1946–7.) Next came Anne Bradstreet, conjured in his great Homage (1956). In the 1960s Berryman, minstrelsy’s “Mr Bones,” and the best-dressed naked alter-ego in poetry, “Henry,” sang The Dream Songs. Later, Berryman borrowed from group therapy to “confront” his life. Like his father, Berryman committed suicide.

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