Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs by John Berryman

Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs

$28.00
$28.00
Skip to product information
Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs by John Berryman
  • Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs by John Berryman
Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs

by John Berryman

$28.00
$28.00

Members save $2.80. Learn more about Membership »

In stock

The never-before-published poems of one of the greatest American poets, John Berryman.

John Berryman's Dream Songs are arguably the funniest, saddest, most intricately wrought cycle of poems by an American in the twentieth century. They are also, more simply, the vibrantly sketched adventures of a uniquely American antihero named Henry. Henry falls in and out of love, and is in and out of the hospital; he sings of joy and desire, and of being at odds with the world. He is lustful; he is depressed.

The collected Dream Songs consists of 385 discrete poems, combining those from 77 Dream Songs, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1965, and those from His Toy, His Dream, His Rest, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1969. But for Berryman, Henry lived on. Over the years, the poet wrote more than a hundred additional songs that didn't make it into the various published editions of the songs. As elucidated by Shane McCrae in the introduction to this edition, Berryman hoped that readers might slot these unpublished poems in among the rest.

Only Sing, which includes both finished poems and drafts, isn't merely the scraps left on a cutting room floor; it is a continuation of the epic cycle, an additional set of poems that crack language open, an extension of Berryman's brilliant account of madness shot through with searing insight.
Book Details
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN:
9780374617943
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
192
Authors:
John Berryman
Published Date:
2025-12-09
Language:
English
Shipping

Ships directly to you from our US distribution partner. US delivery only.

Usually ships within 1–2 days.

Estimated total time for this book on its own:

  • Economy 4–10 days (usually about a week)
  • Expedited 3–7 days
  • Priority 2–6 days

Orders with more than one book may arrive in separate deliveries. Pre-orders always ship separately once the book is released.
Returns

We offer a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return. To be eligible for a return, your item must be in the same condition that you received it: new, unworn or unused, and in its original packaging. See details on our Return & Refund policy.

See more

All Poetry New & Notable, December 2025

About John Berryman

A central figure of American confessional poetry, John Berryman (1914-1972) was born John Smith in McAlester, Oklahoma, and earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia College in 1936 before attending Cambridge University on a fellowship. His early verse appeared in Five Young American Poets (New Directions, 1940), followed by Poems (New Directions, 1942) and The Dispossessed (W. Sloane Associates, 1948). Wider acclaim arrived with Homage to Mistress Bradstreet (Noonday Press, 1956). The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry came in 1965 for 77 Dream Songs (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1964), which introduced his alter egos Henry and Mr. Bones; the sequence later grew into The Dream Songs (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969). He taught for years at the University of Minnesota.

If this information requires correction, please contact info@thepoetryshop.com.

You may also like

If any information on The Poetry Shop contains an error that requires correction, please contact info@thepoetryshop.com