To say that John Berryman's poetry is controversial is to state the obvious. Few poets—and none that I can think of since Pound—have aroused such varying and often violent responses. A. Alvarez has written that one either loves or loathes Berryman's work, and that seems to be the case. This should not be a matter of great surprise. For one thing, Berryman's work—especially The Dream Songs—is difficult, difficult in a way that most recent poetry is not. At a time when American poetry is moving away from the Eliotic modern, Berryman's work seems to be a throwback, if a self-conscious one, to an earlier age, bringing poetry, to paraphrase Williams's remarks on The Waste Land, back into the classroom. (p. 3)

[There is] a tendency in much of Berryman's mature work which in the best light might be called reticence, in the worst light gamesmanship...