Some of Berryman’s spellings are uncertain, for example, “synchrisis” (Sonnet 27), “an-crazy” (Sonnet 53), “vize” (Sonnet 70), “hopelets” (Sonnet 89), “teaze” (“Note to Wang Wei”), and “half-ful” (“Defensio In Extremis”). Most of his uncertain spellings occur in Sonnets, the collection in which he experimented most with language and syntax, but he liked to coin words throughout his writing. Some of his coinages are clearly puns, such as “synchrisis” (i.e., “syncrisis”) which is meant to pun on “Chris,” the woman to whom Sonnets are addressed. Some, such as “vize” in Sonnet 70, are more obscure. (“Vize” is a dialectical variation of “vice” meaning “counsel,” but it may be, in the context of Sonnet 70, that “vize” is meant to combine “vise” and “vizor.”) Unless Berryman either overlooked a misprint or clearly misspelled a word, as he did in the typescript of Sonnet 89 (“deseccation” instead of “desiccation”) and in “On the London Train” (“recompence” instead of “recompense”), his uncertain spellings have been followed.
Copy-Texts and Variants
Unless otherwise noted, all references to the MSS, TSS, CTSS,* galleys, and page proofs are taken from the John Berryman Papers (JBP) at the University of Minnesota Archives, Minneapolis. For all variants in editions prior to Collected Poems 1937–1971 see Ernest C. Stefanik, Jr.’s John Berryman: A Descriptive Bibliography, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974.
Variants are separated by a lemma, that is, the emblem ]. Left of the lemma, in bold print, is the text for CP; right of the lemma is the previously published text, usually the first edition.
THE DISPOSSESSED (1948)
The Copy-Text of TD for CP: The Dispossessed was published by William Sloane Associates of New York on May 10, 1948. Three months earlier, Berryman had corrected the galleys, dated February 23; the page proofs, completed by March 12, are faithful to his corrections and changes. The printer’s TS of TD is lost, but the CTS—on which Berryman noted nearly all of the changes he made in the galleys—is complete except for the poem “At Chinese Checkers.” The CTS, though, has been marginally helpful in editing TD for CP: The author’s page proofs, with some reference to the corrected galleys, has been my primary copy-text.
Except for a single carbon copy (dated March 20, 1947), Berryman’s correspondence with Helen Stewart, the editor at Sloane responsible for overseeing the publication of TD, cannot be found. But his notes on scraps of paper, written during the proofing of the galleys, suggest that he instructed Stewart to make several changes in the page proofs.
While the page proofs are faithful to Berryman’s corrections and changes in the galleys, several variants are not noted in the galleys. Where the page proofs are different from the galleys (in all, eight variants I assume Berryman instructed in a letter), I have accepted the page proof version with one exception, noted below, in “The Song of the Bridegroom.” I have also corrected the two spelling errors in “On the London Train” and “Narcissus Moving.”
VARIANTS: left of the ] indicates the CP version; right of the ] indicates the page proof version of TD.
“On the London Train”
1.31: recompense] recompence (Editor’s Note: Neither the Latin and French derivatives nor the English and American spellings suggest “recompence,” as Berryman spells it in both the CTS and the page proofs of TD. Although the title of the poem might indicate the possibility of a pun on “pence,” the English currency, the poem itself, particularly the universal statement in the last stanza where “recompense” appears, does not seem to suggest a local reference. Furthermore, “recompense” is spelt correctly in the 20P version of “On the London Train.” I have emended the apparent misspelling.)
“Farewell to Miles”
Editor’s Note: On the CTS of this poem, Berryman wrote the following: “Note: Since Lieutenant Theodore Miles was lost at sea off Leyte on [blank space], I should explain that the poem was written in 1940 on the occasion of his leaving Wayne University, where we were teaching, to complete his doctoral studies at University of Chicago. Harvard is named simply as a type-goal of academic life,—this was before I taught there myself or thought of doing so, and the allusion is not, as it would be if I made it now, ironic. Miles married and was happy before he died.”
“Boston Common”
1.59: river:] river, (Editor’s Note: Although Berryman did not indicate in the galleys that the comma after “river” should be changed to a period, the page proofs show a period. One of his HW notes, written while he was correcting either the galleys or the page proofs, indicates the change. The CTS confirms that a period should follow “river.”)
1.114: Tse-tung] Tse-Tung
“The Song of the Bridegroom”
1.9: window.] window, (Editor’s Note: The comma after “window” in the galleys is so faint that it appears to be a period rather than a comma. Although the page proof shows a comma, I have not accepted it because Berryman apparently saw the comma as a period when he proofed the galleys. The CTS shows a period as well.)
“The Pacifist’s Song”
1.9: not … Your ill from evil comes … Bear] not . . Your ill from evil comes . . Bear (Editor’s Note: I have added extra points because the ellipses appear in a quotation.)
“The Long Home”
Editor’s Note: In Berryman’s HW notes, made while he was correcting the galleys, he wrote: “I am v[ery] pleased with the printer’s faithfulness to my ‘accidents’—inadvertent errors aside, & caesuras in Long Home.” The galleys show that he instructed the printer to make nine emendations to “The Long Home,” all of which appear in the page proofs. The variants listed below, however, are not noted in the galleys—perhaps some of the “inadvertent errors” he refers to in his notes—but do appear in the page proofs. Left of the ] is the page proof version that is accepted for CP; right of the ] is the galley version:
1.3: still,] still.
1.5: beside the] beside the
1.23: to amaze] to amaze
1.71: cold bright] cold bright
1.77: come.] come,
“A Winter-Piece to a Friend Away”
1.38: Editor’s Note: Berryman did not indicate the emendation of “landscapes” to “landscape” in the galleys, but the “s” is deleted in the proofs. I have assumed he instructed the change.
“New Year’s Eve”
1.18: Editor’s Note: Although Berryman did not indicate the comma between “fate” and the dash in the galleys, it does appear in the page proofs. The emendation is consistent with his punctuation in similar instances, as in the preceding poem “A Winter-Piece to a Friend Away” in ll. 46 and 47: “same,—” and “delays,—”.
“Narcissus Moving”
1.25: pavane] pavanne (Editor’s Note: Neither the French nor the Anglicized spelling is “pavanne,” as Berryman spells it in both the CTS and the page proofs. I have emended the misspelling.)
1.30: Editor’s Note: Although Berryman did not indicate the change of “one” to “once” in the galleys, the page proofs show the change, which I assume he instructed.
1.36: Un] Une (Editor’s Note: Berryman corrected the feminine of silence in HomageAOP to the correct masculine, which is accepted for CP.)
“The Dispossessed”
1.1: that … that] that . . that (Editor’s Note: I have added an extra point because the ellipsis appears in a quotation.)
SONNETS TO CHRIS (1947, 1966)
ABBREVIATIONS FOR Sonnets:
TS-1:
The original typescript of Sonnets that consists of: the title page (typed on the title page is Sonnets to Chris and “John Berryman” with the HW date 1947); a HW index of sonnets 1–100; ribbon TS of sonnets 1–24, 26–105, 110 (now 106 in CP), 112–14 (now 108–10 in CP); and an epilogue page on which “Judges xvi.22” appears in the center. Some seventy-two emendations in Berryman’s HW appear throughout the TS, probably done in late 1947 or early 1948. TS-1 is now in JBP.
CTS-C:
The carbon typescript, with the exception of
one TS, of the original typescript (TS-1) with Berryman’s thirty-two HW changes in black ink; CTS-C consists of: CTSS of sonnets 1–106 and 108–11 and a TS of 107; no title page. Berryman made nearly all the HW changes on the CTS-C in 1966 (only two were done in 1947–48). The CTS-C was the printer’s copy-text, now at Columbia University, New York City, for the FSG edition of Berryman’s Sonnets (1967).
The Copy-Texts of Sonnets for CP: Berryman wrote and revised nearly all of Sonnets during an intense five- to seven-month period in 1947. The first draft of Sonnet 1, the extant HW MSS indicate, was written on April 26; the last (107 in both CP and the FSG edition) was revised on September 30. In late 1947 or early 1948, he typed, with a carbon, the 110 sonnets he considered complete, and, about the same time, he penciled in some seventy-two changes on the TS, two of which were transferred to the CTS. Both MSS were apparently laid aside for nearly twenty years; only Sonnet 25—published in Poetry magazine in 1952 and again in Thought in 1958—gave a clue that the sonnets existed.
In August 1966, for reasons I shall present below in the “Publication History,” Berryman decided to publish Sonnets. During the same month, he wrote seven new ones (107 and 112–17 in CP) and the prefatory poem in Dream Song stanza form. But the copy-text he sent FSG was not the original TS (TS-1) with his 1947 HW emendations; he chose, instead, the carbon copy (CTS-C). As though he were creating a Joycean puzzle for future editors, he made some thirty-two changes in August 1966 in the CTS-C—the principal characters’ names (not his own, however, in Sonnet 84); the places and street names; the date in Sonnet 106; and several words. None of the 1966 changes was based on his HW changes in the original TS.
The outcome of these three separate histories—the writing, revising, typing, and editing in 1947; the writing of the new sonnets; and the revising of the CTS in 1966—was to create three primary texts, each with its own artistic integrity:
1. The original TS with numerous HW changes (1947)
2. The CTS (1947) with HW changes done in 1966
3. The prefatory Dream Song and seven new sonnets (1966), two of which (now Sonnets 115 and 116 in CP) were not included in Berryman’s Sonnets because they were sent to the publisher after the collection was in press
When Berryman decided to publish Sonnets in August 1966, he was not—perhaps could not be—true to his final intentions of 1947, and it is his final intentions of 1947, regardless of his intentions of 1966, that should, I believe, dictate the primary copy-text for his collected works.
My choosing the 1947 TS with HW changes restores the artistic integrity of the original Sonnets and untangles them from both Berryman’s 1966 exigences and the seven new sonnets. My reason for including the 1966 sonnets in CP is based less upon their final shaping of the story (which, as Berryman wrote to Robert Giroux, was his reason for writing them) and more upon the record of the point of view they offer. These new sonnets, as well as the prefatory Dream Song, represent Berryman’s later response to his 1947 sonnets. Once we know that the last sonnets (107 and 112–17) were written in 1966 (by not capitalizing the initial letter of each new line in the 1967 edition, Berryman alerted readers that these poems are in some way set apart), we may read them as a coda to the narrative and a re-vision of his younger self.
Publication History of Sonnets: Berryman’s decision to publish Sonnets might very well have originated as early as April and May of 1965, when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for 77 Dream Songs and a Guggenheim Fellowship to complete The Dream Songs. The two prestigious awards gave public notice of his national stature and seemed to double his expectations of himself. During the period of the Guggenheim, awarded for the 1966–67 academic year, Berryman’s plan was to complete The Dream Songs in Dublin, Ireland, between September 1966 and spring 1967. The expenses for the year abroad with his wife and young daughter (and his wish to help with medical expenses for his mother) became matters of financial concern.
To supplement his income, Berryman taught a summer course on “Humanities and the Modern World” at the University of Minnesota from July 18 to August 20, 1966. His preparations and lectures demanded most of his time: the classes met daily, Monday through Friday, and he was grading finals the night before he and his family departed for Dublin. When one adds to his financial concerns and teaching duties the preparations for a year abroad as well as his organizing large files of MSS of Dream Songs and writing new ones, it is remarkable that he even considered taking on another project. But Sonnets was the most complete work at hand, and to publish the collection would bring in the income he needed. The double recognition of the Pulitzer and the Guggenheim assured that his next publication would be in demand.
Although Berryman told an interviewer in mid-June 1966 that Sonnets would “probably be published next Spring [1967],” he waited nearly two months before initiating publication. On August 11, he called William Meredith, a close friend whose opinion Berryman counted on, and asked him to read the MS of some “114 sonnets.” If Meredith thought they merited publication, would he send the MS (actually the CTS-C) on to Berryman’s publisher, Robert Giroux? Meredith sent the CTS-C to FSG and enthusiastically endorsed these “remarkable poems,” as he wrote to Giroux on August 23. About the same time, Berryman and his family were sailing to Ireland; by the first week of September they were in Dublin.
The exhausting journey to Ireland seemed to intensify Berryman’s capacity for alcohol and writing Dream Songs; Sonnets was far removed from his concerns. Meanwhile, Giroux had read Sonnets, and on September 28, he offered Berryman a contract. Both agreed that the collection should be published as quickly as possible, primarily because Berryman expected to complete The Dream Songs (that is, the last parts, published as His Toy, His Dream, His Rest) by the end of 1967. Neither Berryman nor Giroux wanted the publication of Sonnets to deflect attention from the completion of his epic work.
The advance Berryman had hoped for was part of the contract he accepted in a letter to Giroux on October 8, 1966. In early November, he sent four new sonnets—written in Minneapolis in August—to add to the 111 Giroux had in the CTS-C. (Berryman in fact sent Giroux two more sonnets in early February 1967 after the 115 were in galleys, but it was too late to add them.) Giroux sent the galleys to Berryman in early January 1967, and he promptly returned them on January 11 with a note written by Kate Berryman. She said that although John was ill, the galleys had been proofed. She asked Giroux to check the accuracy of six passages because they did not have a copy of a Sonnets MS. Giroux responded on 18 January: “I have checked the ms. against all the items you listed, and found a few other typographical errors too.” No further changes or corrections were made, and Berryman’s Sonnets—the title Giroux had suggested—was published on April 24, 1967.
Berryman’s illness and preoccupation with writing Dream Songs during the process of publishing and proofing Sonnets ensured the probability of errors in the final copy. Both sets of galleys—one in JBP and the other at Columbia University—show only six HW corrections, which do not appear to be in Berryman’s hand. It is certain, however, that he did not (could not, because he did not have the MS) proof the galleys carefully. I find seventeen errors of transcription in comparing the CTS-C with the FSG edition. Some of the FSG errors may be attributed to obscured or uncertain letters that were erased and changed in the TS-1 but only typed over in the CTS-C. For example, the first “g” in “springing” in 54.10 (CP) was erased on the TS-1 and retyped as a “t”; the carbon (CTS-C) however, was not erased, so that the word looks more like “springing” (which appeared in the FSG edition) than the corrected “sprinting.”
But why did Berryman choose to publish the carbon copy rather than the original typescript with his 1947 changes? First, his circumstances did not allow him time to produce a clean TS for FSG. When Berryman called Meredith on August 11, 1966, he and his family were to depart for Dublin in two weeks. The hectic preparations—as well as the demands of the final days of the was teaching and his preparing to work on The Dream Songs—wer
e foremost in his life. There simply was not time to retype and carry forward his HW corrections from the original 1947 TS. The only unmarked copy of Sonnets was the CTS; he need only change the names and places by hand.
That Berryman did not destroy his original TS suggests that he wished to preserve his final intentions of 1947. An experienced editor himself, very well have taken some delight in playing a sort of hide-and-seek to be found out. Whatever his reasons for saving the TS-1, it seems it is nearer his “final” intentions than the CTS-C.
VARIANTS: Left of the ] indicates the CP version that follows the original typescript (TS-1) with Berryman’s HW changes; right of the ] indicate the FSG edition. As I indicate in my Editor’s Notes, Guidelines, and Procedures, I have regularized Berryman’s arbitrary use of ellipsis points and quotation marks.
Title: Sonnets to Chris] Berryman’s Sonnets
Epigraph poem (“He made, a thousand years ago”)
1.7 Let] let (Editor’s Note: The CTS in file 2 shows a capital “L.”)
2.13: breasts . . My] breasts . . My Sonnets
3.7: crown] crowd (Editor’s Note: In both TS-1 and CTS-C the word is clearly “crown.”)
4.5: Chris] Lise
.5: where] when (Editor’s Note: In both TS-1 and CTS-C the word is clearly “where.”)
.9: dánce] dance (HW in TS-1)
5.12: Laught . . Well,] Laught . . Well,
6.1: twist] grind (HW in TS-1)
John Berryman Page 33