Berryman and Lowell

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Berryman and Lowell

• The Confessional Men

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John Berryman
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Biography

• Born in Oklahoma in 1914
• Taught at Harvard and Princeton chaotic,
  brilliant and brutal presence
• Alcoholic, haunted by fathers suicide
• Given fame but also endured an isolated life of
  mental illness

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Berrymans aesthetic

• Influenced by Elizabethans and metaphysical wit
  (outside daily life and narrative)
• Often wrote in voices, esp. in Dream Songs Henry
  and Mr. Bones
• Formalist (metrical)
• Intensely dark, elaborate voice
• Used an obscuring syntax despite meter

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Voice in Dreamsongs Henry and Mr. Bones

• Both aspects of Berryman himself.
• Henry more of a conscious ego-driven voice.
• Mr. Bones more of an id in blackface,
  representing death.

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Robert Lowell

• Born to artistocratic family in Massachusetts,
  educated in Louisiana.
• Won Pulitzer at age of 30 in 1947 for Lord
  Wearys Castle
• Wrote rigorous formal poetry, used traditional
  strategies like rhyme, meter, sound.
• Life full of marital and psychological turmoil.
• Friends with Elizabeth Bishop.

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My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Wilson

• http//www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/video
  /lowell.html

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