Here are 385 short verses that comprise a single long poem about a fictional man named Henry, a hard-drinking American "who has suffered an irreversible loss." The first group of 77 poems -- structurally rigid, yet verbally freewheeling -- won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1965. Read the collection straight through to get a drunken rush from Berryman's brilliant wordplay, or sample individual verses when you just need a sip of madness.

Harold Check