Berryman, by W. S. Merwin, a YouTube Supercut (annotated)
What follows is an annotated version of “Berryman” by W. S. Merwin, including links to 78 source videos that appear in the fair-use supercut, below.
Berryman
BY W. S. MERWIN
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
don’t lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you’re older
of the same words in a line of verse
he suggested I pray to the Muse
right there in the corner and he
it was in the days before the beard
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
that permitted everything and transmuted it
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I asked how can you ever be sure
any good at all and he said you can’t
you can’t you can never be sure