Author: Delmore Schwartz

At last the air fragrant, the bird’s bubbling whistle Succinct in the unknown unsettled trees: O little Charles, beside the […]

Let me not, ever, to the marriage in Cana Of Galilee admit the slightest sentiment Of doubt about the astonishing […]

Nothing is given which is not taken. Little or nothing is taken which is not freely desired, freely, truly and […]

I looked toward the movie, the common dream, The he and she in close-ups, nearer than life, And I accepted […]

“Trash, trash!” the king my uncle said, “The spirit’s smoke and weak as smoke ascends. “Sit in the sun and […]

“The trumpet is a brilliant instrument.” – Dietrich Buxtehude Come and come forth and come up from the cup of […]

Twenty-eight naked young women bathed by the shore Or near the bank of a woodland lake Twenty-eight girls and all […]

Someone is harshly coughing on the next floor, Sudden excitement catching the flesh of his throat: Who is the sick […]

O Love, dark animal, With your strangeness go Like any freak or clown: Appease tee child in her Because she […]

(After Valery) This hushed surface where the doves parade Amid the pines vibrates, amid the graves; Here the noon’s justice […]

Is the spider a monster in miniature? His web is a cruel stair, to be sure, Designed artfully, cunningly placed, […]

This is the greatest thing in North America: Europe is the greatest thing in North America! High in the sky, […]

The beautiful American word, Sure, As I have come into a room, and touch The lamp’s button, and the light […]

I should have been a plumber fixing drains. And mending pure white bathtubs for the great Diogenes (who scorned all […]

(After Rilke) Spring has returned! Everything has returned! The earth, just like a schoolgirl, memorizes Poems, so many poems. … […]

(With much help from Robert Good, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and little Catherine Schwartz) Shall I compare her to a […]

Socrates ghost must haunt me now, Notorious death has let him go, He comes to me with a clumsy bow, […]

Come, let us rejoice in James Joyce, in the greatness of this poet, king, and king of poets For he […]

Silence is a great blue bell Swinging and ringing, tinkling and singing, In measure’s pleasure, and in the supple symmetry […]

What is to be given, Is spirit, yet animal, Colored, like heaven, Blue, yellow, beautiful. The blood is checkered by […]