Author: Delmore Schwartz

In the naked bed, in Plato’s cave, Reflected headlights slowly slid the wall, Carpenters hammered under the shaded window, Wind […]

I Christmas Poem for Nancy Noel, Noel We live and we die Between heaven and hell Between the earth and […]

Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword, Threw it down, became a lamb. Swift spat upon the species, but Took two women […]

Faithful to your commandments, o consciousness, o Holy bird of words soaring ever whether to nothingness or to inconceivable fulfillment […]

Old man in the crystal morning after snow, Your throat swathed in a muffler, your bent Figure building the snow […]

(After Rilke) The city floats no longer like a bait To hook the nimble darting summer days. The glazed and […]

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 […]

The horns in the harbor booming, vaguely, Fog, forgotten, yesterday, conclusion, Nostalgic, noising dim sorrow, calling To sleep is it? […]

(After Valery) O Sea! … ‘Tis I, risen from death once more To hear the waves’ harmonious roar And see […]

“Poet and veteran of childhood, look! See in me the obscene, for you have love, For you have hatred, you, […]

A poem moves forward, Like the passages and percussions of trains in progress A pattern of recurrence, a hammer of […]