Some months before his tragic death in January 1972, John Berryman completed this selection from the whole of his published poetry. He designed it to provide both an introduction to his work and a summary of his poetic career up to the publication of Love and Fame. It reveals clearly that Berryman was one of the most original and important poets of the twentieth century.
'His fineness is of a kind we no longer, alas, expect, scarcely even hope for; it is produced by sheer weight of his poetic intelligence and originality.' Al Alvarez
'Poignant, abrasive, anguished, humorous.' Robert Lowell
Some months before his tragic death in January 1972, John Berryman completed this selection from the whole of his published poetry. He designed it to provide both an introduction to his work and a summary of his poetic career up to the publication of Love and Fame. It reveals clearly that Berryman was one of the most original and important poets of the twentieth century.
'His fineness is of a kind we no longer, alas, expect, scarcely even hope for; it is produced by sheer weight of his poetic intelligence and originality.' Al Alvarez
'Poignant, abrasive, anguished, humorous.' Robert Lowell