John Allyn Smith Jr., more known as John Berryman, was born on October 25, 1914 in McAlester, Oklahoma, United States. He was born to John Allyn Smith and Martha Little Smith. John Jr.’s childhood wasn’t the best one I child could ask for. Depressed and intoxicated, John Jr.’s father committed suicide by gunshot on June 26, 1926. Three months later, his widow married Berryman, the Smith’s landlord. Young John Jr. was soon officially adopted by Berryman, and he therefore got his new stepfather's last name. The events surrounding his father's death, which occurred when Berryman was twelve, profoundly affected his life and his poetry. He lived on with that deep scar in his mind. However, as he grew older, life began to treat John well. Regardless
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Nevertheless, Berryman excelled academically at South Kent, and became the first ever student in the school's history to graduate early, not needing to complete his last term. Also, he entered Columbia University, graduated from Columbia College with a degree in English and earned the high honor of being named a Kellett Fellow, which allowed him to study at Clare College, in Cambridge, England, for two years. Later in his years, he earned a reputation as an intense, passionate, and charismatic teacher that followed him from classroom to classroom. Poetry writing and his teaching career were flourishing, until his life had a several down hills again. This time he earned a reputation for his “heavy drinking, womanizing, and unpredictable temperament that could shift from endearing to intimidating.” As the 1940s progressed, Berryman used alcohol more and more to deal with his “insecurities, confusion, and self-loathing.” Also, he had an obsession with “self-examination, growing dependence on alcohol, and notorious womanizing.” These were putting a strain on his personal life. He found little relief from his inner conflict or his dependence on …show more content…
Around 1932, when he entered Columbia University, he was known as a diligent student and began taking poetry very seriously. By this time, he had some poems written as well. Allan Tate was a poet Berryman deeply admired. He was also influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. H. Auden, William Butler Yeats, and e. e. cummings. Besides the influence he received from these people, what contributed to him wanting to write poems was simply because he felt most at home with literature and the humanities. He loved teaching poetry and was naturally a person with the need to write art. As many critics had said, “His poetry is both brilliant and tormented.” He mostly wrote about personal life and experiences. The genres covering his experiences are those of obsession, tragedy, and the deep pain of life itself. And, because of these poems, Berryman was acknowledged with several awards throughout his life, such as: National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Bollingen Prize, American Academy Award for Poetry, etc. The intensive studying he had done in all his years of college and being a professor in a variety of the most prestigious universities around the United States must’ve enriched his way of writing poems and made him what we know today as one of the most important poets of the twentieth
Nevertheless, Berryman excelled academically at South Kent, and became the first ever student in the school's history to graduate early, not needing to complete his last term. Also, he entered Columbia University, graduated from Columbia College with a degree in English and earned the high honor of being named a Kellett Fellow, which allowed him to study at Clare College, in Cambridge, England, for two years. Later in his years, he earned a reputation as an intense, passionate, and charismatic teacher that followed him from classroom to classroom. Poetry writing and his teaching career were flourishing, until his life had a several down hills again. This time he earned a reputation for his “heavy drinking, womanizing, and unpredictable temperament that could shift from endearing to intimidating.” As the 1940s progressed, Berryman used alcohol more and more to deal with his “insecurities, confusion, and self-loathing.” Also, he had an obsession with “self-examination, growing dependence on alcohol, and notorious womanizing.” These were putting a strain on his personal life. He found little relief from his inner conflict or his dependence on …show more content…
Around 1932, when he entered Columbia University, he was known as a diligent student and began taking poetry very seriously. By this time, he had some poems written as well. Allan Tate was a poet Berryman deeply admired. He was also influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. H. Auden, William Butler Yeats, and e. e. cummings. Besides the influence he received from these people, what contributed to him wanting to write poems was simply because he felt most at home with literature and the humanities. He loved teaching poetry and was naturally a person with the need to write art. As many critics had said, “His poetry is both brilliant and tormented.” He mostly wrote about personal life and experiences. The genres covering his experiences are those of obsession, tragedy, and the deep pain of life itself. And, because of these poems, Berryman was acknowledged with several awards throughout his life, such as: National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Bollingen Prize, American Academy Award for Poetry, etc. The intensive studying he had done in all his years of college and being a professor in a variety of the most prestigious universities around the United States must’ve enriched his way of writing poems and made him what we know today as one of the most important poets of the twentieth