Delmore Schwartz

[rgdmalaysia]

Delmore Schwartz is one of my favorite poets and "Summer Knowledge" is his best collection of poems....Here's one of my favorites

[from]

THE HEAVY BEAR WHO GOES WITH ME

"the withness of the body" --Whitehead


The heavy bear who goes with me,
A manifold honey to smear his face,
Clumsy and lumbering here and there,
The central ton of every place,
The hungry beating brutish one
In love with candy, anger, and sleep,
Crazy factotum, dishevelling all,
Climbs the building, kicks the football,
Boxes his brother in the hate-ridden city.

....

[AuntShecky]

What a coincidence! I mentioned Humboldt's Gift in my posting/ a little offering today. Humboldt in Saul Bellow's novel is a thinly-veiled Delmore, the critics said.

Speaking of the poet, if you haven't done so please read his short story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities." I re-read it a couple weeks ago.

Give us your take on his poem, "That Great American Word, 'Sure' "

[rgdmalaysia]

AS,

I also attempted Humboldt's Gift for the reason you mentioned but didn't finish it....Not because of the way Saul Bellow portrayed Schwartz but because Saul Bellow is really a writer whose style I do not care for at all.

Lou Reed wrote a song about Schwartz called "European Son" that appeared on the first Velvet Underground album....He was his teacher when Reed was attending Syracuse University and influenced him greatly I recall reading.

The Beautiful American Word, Sure is an interesting choice....For me, it it expresses the same sort of mindset as the phrase "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"....Dark accidents are better than planning your life down to the minutest detail? I think Schwartz is sort of undecided. I think there aspects of this poem that point at Schwartz's later troubles with mental illness.

Another great one.....

FROM

Tired And Unhappy, You Think Of Houses

Tired and unhappy, you think of houses
Soft-carpeted and warm in the December evening,
While snow's white pieces fall past the window,
And the orange firelight leaps.
A young girl sings
That song of Gluck where Orpheus pleads with Death;
Her elders watch, nodding their happiness
To see time fresh again in her self-conscious eyes:


....

[rgdmalaysia]

Another great one....

FROM


America, America!

I am a poet of the Hudson River and the heights above it,
the lights, the stars, and the bridges
I am also by self-appointment the laureate of the Atlantic
-of the peoples' hearts, crossing it
to new America.

I am burdened with the truck and chimera, hope,
acquired in the sweating sick-excited passage
in steerage, strange and estranged
Hence I must descry and describe the kingdom of emotion.

For I am a poet of the kindergarten (in the city)
....

[AuntShecky]

I loved both of these, and the second one is quite Whitmanesque.
I disagree w. your assessment of Saul Bellow (one of my favorite novelists.)
I'll be sure to look up the Lou Reed song.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness in appreciating a poet of this great talent.

[tlhoffman]

Check out another song by Lou Reed, titled "My House" in which he pays tribute to Delmore Schwatrz.


Delmore, I missed all of your funny ways

I missed yor jokes and the brillian things you said.

Just yesterday, I had my class reading "Tired and Unhappy, You Think of Houses", a perfect poem for the beginning of December.