VOL. 22, NO. 16	FEBRUARY 28, 1997

By Elizabeth Weaver

Poet John Berryman, CC'36

our master poets gathered at Miller Theatre Feb. 14 to pay tribute to another master, John Berryman (CC '36), author of The Dream Songs, Homage to Mistress Bradstreet and Henry's Fate.

Reading from his poems and essays were Richard Howard, professor of writing in the School of the Arts, Louise Glück, Donald Justice and Helen Vendler. The evening ended with Berryman's own recorded voice, speaking and reading from his work.

Berryman, who committed suicide at the age of 57, was known for his large body of poems, The Dream Songs, written about Henry--a somewhat autobiographical character, according to some--and a cynical, introspective man with a saving sense of humor.

"It's the humorous Berryman I particularly warm to," Vendler said. She chuckled, reading "Dream Song 14": "...my mother told me as a boy/ (repeatingly) 'Ever to confess you're bored/ means you have no/ Inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no/ inner resources, because I am heavy bored..."

But none of the readers denied Berryman's somber side. Howard recalled that neither he nor fellow-poet John Hollander knew quite what to think of the awesome figure whom they met around 1950 when they were young writers. Several lines from poems read by Justice and Glück seemed to foreshadow the poet's tragic fate.

"...I don't think I will sing/ any more just now;/ or ever..." the speaker of "He Resigns" says. Perhaps Berryman spoke from the heart when he wrote that one, as well as these sentiments in one poem from The Book of Love and Fame: "Do we live again?...Rest may be [the] ultimate gift..."