Скачать или смотреть “You die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good”

W.S. Merwin’s poem “Berryman” pays tribute to one of his greatest influences: the ever-difficult John Berryman.

Merwin, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate and received both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Poetry, was a longtime friend of the International Poetry Forum, a celebrated reading series based in Pittsburgh, PA.

The International Poetry Forum’s founder, Samuel Hazo, has cited Merwin as one of his favorite readers from among the 800+ poets, actors, and musicians who have visited the Forum in Pittsburgh since 1966. Merwin performed at the International Poetry Forum on six occasions (‘69, ‘70, ‘82, ‘89, ‘97, ‘06), more than any other visiting poet besides Richard Wilbur.

John Berryman himself visited Pittsburgh to perform at the International Poetry Forum in 1969. During his visit, Berryman cited fellow International Poetry Forum alumni W.H. Auden, Saul Bellow, and Robert Lowell as three of his own greatest influences.

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[From the “History of the International Poetry Forum” documentary, 2017. All rights c. authors; all rights reserved.]