Delmore Schwartz Quotes
December 8, 1913 – July 11, 1966
Read Delmore Schwartz biography
More Delmore Schwartz Quotes
Whence, if ever, shall come the actualityOf a voice speaking the mind's knowing,The sunlight bright on the green windowshade,And the self articulate, affectionate, and flowing,Ease, warmth, light, the utter showing,When in the white bed all things are made.
Delmore Schwartz— "Sonnet: O City, City"
Where the light is, and each thing clear,Separate from all others, standing in its place,I drink the time and touch whatever's near,And hope for day when the whole world has that face:For what assures her present every year?In dark accidents the mind's sufficient grace.
Delmore Schwartz— "The Beautiful American Word, Sure"
How the false truths of the years of youth have passed!Have passed at full speed like trains which never stoppedThere where I stood and waited, hardly aware,How little I knew, or which of them was the oneTo mount and ride to hope or where true hope arrives.
Delmore Schwartz— "I am a Book I neither Wrote nor Read"
I no more wrote than read that book which isThe self I am, half hidden as it isFrom one and all who see within a kissThe lounging formless blackness of an abyss.How could I think the brief years were enoughTo prove the reality of endless love?
Delmore Schwartz— "I am a Book I neither Wrote nor Read"
But this, this which we say before we’re sorry,This which we live behind our unseen faces,Is neither dream, nor childhood, neitherMyth, nor landscape, final, nor finished,For we are incomplete and know no future,And we are howling or dancing out our soulsIn beating syllables before the curtain:We are Shakespearean, we are strangers.
Delmore Schwartz— "Dogs Are Shakespearean, Children Are Strangers"
That inescapable animal walks with me,Has followed me since the black womb held,Moves where I move, distorting my gesture,A caricature, a swollen shadow,A stupid clown of the spirit's motive,Perplexes and affronts with his own darkness,The secret life of belly and bone.
Delmore Schwartz— "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me"
