John Berryman at the Brockport Writers Forum
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 вер 2016
- John Berryman reads "The Song of the Tortured Girl" and discusses apprenticeship, where "Henry" came from, loss of friends, and love and sex. Click the CC button to turn captions on--Berryman's speech can be hard to follow here. William Heyen describes his visit to Brockport in "A Memoir of John Berryman," anthologized in FIRST PERSON SINGULAR, ed. Joyce Carol Oates. The interview took place on October 7, 1970; this is an edited version of the 58-minute recording. For more visit our archive at dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/b...
"I don't know what an oboe can do!" Iconic. 6:47
The Song of the Tortured Girl
After a little I could not have told---
But no one asked me this---why I was there.
I asked. The ceiling of that place was high
And there were sudden noises, which I made.
I must have stayed there a long time today:
My cup of soup was gone when they brought me back.
Often "Nothing worse now can come to us"
I thought, the winter the young men stayed away,
My uncle died, and mother broke her crutch.
And then the strange room where the brightest light
Does not shine on the strange men: shines on me.
I feel them stretch my youth and throw a switch.
Through leafless branches the sweet wind blows
Making a mild sound, softer than a moan;
High in a pass once where we put our tent,
Minutes I lay awake to hear my joy.
I no longer remember what they want.
Minutes I lay awake to hear my joy.
I can listen to Berryman speak for hours and never tire.
Drunk Berryman is hard to take. He's no where near his best here. The slurring, spurts of loudness mixed with mumbling. It's a hard thing to watch such a personal struggle (alcoholism) manifest in such a public forum (and preserved for all time.)
like oliver reed or george best on chat shows.. the demise captured forever..
Bloodsport.
You capture it well.
Still, the origin story of the Henry character is worth hearing. His swerve into that litany of his dead friends is moving.
One of my favorite interviews by my favorite poet! Keep uploading guys!
I love this one too. More to come...
Love Brockport and love the writers forum
Imagine him saying the things he says at around the 12 minute mark without his beard. I don't know exactly what I mean by this but it's hard to do.
John liked to tip back a few. More than a few.
So that’s where Henry came from. Lol@ foot killing him and taking off shoe.
Yes, that's what happened
His synopsis of his adventures, if that’s the word, with women isn’t easy to listen to. No, I don’t say this out of PC -itis. He seems to- and I guess this is to his credit- understand how much trouble he was.
He’s plastered
Yes, apart from approximately 11 months, he was always plastered.
too bad Berryman was such a self indulgent character who burdened so many people with his arrogance .
The Deeply Untalented John Berryman offers adenoidal burblings through a drool encrusted beard. Poetry never sounded so awful. Berryman should have jumped off the bridge 20 years earlier and spared himself having to produce so many dreadful by-products of academic industry. Yet, this what the academic establishment deserves. Nothing is more hilarious than listening to the academically inclined attempt to defend Berryman's work.
I have read some dream songs that I thought were pretty well written and I wouldn’t call him untalented and certainly not deeply, but I agree that this interview is pretty much just noise pollution. Charles Bukowski was essentially a “Deeply Untalented John Berryman,” to quote you.
@@pennsylvaniapinchington5698 How much poetry have you been exposed to? Berryman's poetry has no musical depth. Compare his work to Basil Bunting's "Briggflatts" for example. The contrast is vast. Look up Ted Berrigan's "Whitman In Black" on UA-cam. Berrigan's poem has a musical depth that Berryman's work never approaches within 100 miles. Berryman was as awful a reader of his poetry as he was an awful poet. There are a lot of academic hacks in the world of establishment career poets. The musical depth and complexity tends to come from the poets who took the Bohemian avenue, not the academic avenue. CHEERS
@@ericmalone3213 literally no one reads basil bunting. Why? Bereft of style.
@@georgedelvalle4588 What an utterly pathetic, clueless and boneheaded statement. Read the Richard Burton biography of Bunting, Mr Clueless of the Codswallop. You're farting out of your face.
@@ericmalone3213 and my farts have more sense than your stuffy bouquet. Second rate Pound imitator. Inscrutable as Hart Crane, another snooze fest. I’ll stick to my J.H Prynne, Olsen or Dorn for Pound imitation, thanks.